Talk:Military Sports:Chariotry, Polo and Horsemanship
By Vishal Agarwal and The Hindu Society of Minnesota
In the oldest śāstra Ṛgveda, there is a mention of Queen Viśpalā who excelled at chariot warfare. She lost a leg in a battle, after which she wore a copper prosthetic leg made for her by the physicians. In the Mahābhārata, Yudhiṣṭhira was a renowned charioteer, and so were Kṛṣṇa and his protégé Sātyaki.
Many animals were first domesticated. In the Sarasvatī-Sindhu civilization (commonly called the Harappan culture or incorrectly as the Indus Valley Civilization), archaeologists have found a few seals showing decorated elephants that were perhaps a part of a procession. Interestingly, archaeologists found an ancient manual of chariot racing in a country named Syria in the Middle East, which is a few thousand miles away from India. This manual is older than 1500 BCE. The interesting thing to note is that many terms used in this book are from the Sanskrit language.
There exist at least five ancient Sanskrit text titled as Aśvaśāstra (the Science of Horses) that deal with the classification and rearing of horses and training them for sports as well as war. One of these manuals on horses is said to have been written by Nakula, one of the Pāṇḍava brothers. The picture shows the page from a manuscript showing eye surgery being performed on a horse.
