Pre-modern Warfare:India And Elsewhere

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<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Mar 28 2006, 02:43 AM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Mar 28 2006, 02:43 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->To be honest I was not aware of seige engines in pre-Islamic India. Thanks for opening my eyes.

A litteral translation would not be useful for instance a hydraulic ram was translated as a water goat.

Can you give a context and some description of where the word occurs in a passage?  Some of the more knowledgable folks can provide the contextual meaning.

I suspect 'kantaka' was some sort of a launcher for a pointed arrow type device. Like a giant cross bow  akin to the Roman ballista. Could be generic for a hurling device.

The Shila refers to stone. So the Maha(big)shila(stone) kantaka(hurling device as noted above) might be a Big stone hurling device.

Hasti refers to elephant.


I wonder if Artha shastra describes any seige engines? What about Megasthenes?
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Hi Everyone. Thank you for all the replies.

Searching for pre-Islamic Indian catapults has been extremely difficult. All Islamic sources definitively state the entry of catapults into India was during their 6-8th century invasions. Indian histories tend to be silent on the existance of catapults and where mentioned, in many cases tend to support this Islamic introduction theory.

I'm trying to pin down the meanings of the names (both literal translations and possible combined meanings) as well as to try and find clues on how they worked. I suspect some of these catapults like the Sarvatobhadra worked on a very different principle from the usual lever or torsion catapults of the other cultures.

Is it possible to get some agreement on the best possible sanskrit translation of the names? I'm handicapped from not knowing sanskrit or having access to much Indian primary sources and I'm hoping knowledgeable persons such as yourselves here would be able to help.

Reiterating,

Maha shila kantaka - "Great" "Stone" "Arrow-Point?/Annoyance?"

Sarva (to) bhadra - "All Directions" "Safe?/Pacified?"

Hasti varaka - "Deliver?/Elephant?" "Misery?" (Isn't Hasti = elephant only in Tamil?)

Talavrinta - ???

Thanks!