Column by Devdutt Pattanaik | The horseman of Kanchi

At the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Kanchi (or Kanchipuram), there may be a picture of a horseman that’s slightly peculiar. On one aspect, it seems to be a South Indian Nayaka king, however on the opposite aspect it resembles a foreigner carrying trousers and a tunic. A overseas temple guardian, or mercenary, both Portuguese or Turk.

The horsemen have been identified in Tamil Nadu as Ravuttan (horse riders), a time period based mostly on Rajput phrases corresponding to Rawat and Raut (chieftain). Such guardian photographs are discovered in lots of temples of the Arcot and Mysuru areas. This could have impressed the “horse dance” often called “Poikkaal kuthirai aattam”, in addition to terracotta horse picture choices to please people deities corresponding to Ayyanar.

Carved within the seventeenth century by Nayaka kings, it reminds us of a time — till the nineteenth century — when horses have been imported in huge numbers to India from Central Asia, Persia and Arabia. The ‘vilayati’ (overseas) Turki horses got here by land for northern markets. North Indian kings wouldn’t enable horses go south to their rivals beneath the Vindhya mountains. So the south imported the ‘bahari’ Arabian horses by sea (bah’r means sea in Arabic).

For over 3,000 years, horses have been imported into India. They have been vital to control empires and, subsequently, have been all the time in demand. But just a little identified reality is that horses are tough to breed in our nation, which explains the necessity for annual imports.

Local horse breeding did happen in pockets of Gujarat and Rajasthan about 800 years in the past. This was to fulfill the calls for of the Delhi sultans, when provide from Central Asia was minimize following Mongol invasions. However, the native breeds (corresponding to Tattu) have been all the time thought-about inferior to the overseas ones (Turki, Tajiki). Kathiawar was one of the few locations the place overseas breeds might thrive in India.

An import with impression

The Rig Veda accommodates some of the oldest horse poetry on the planet. The horse is talked about 200 occasions. It is a reminder that the poets have been conversant in this overseas animal that had been imported into the subcontinent from a faraway land. There are not any horses in Harappan cities as a result of horses had not been domesticated when these cities thrived.

In the Bronze Age, we don’t discover horses in Egypt or Mesopotamia or China or the Harappan civilisation of India. However, by the Iron Age, horse-drawn chariots have been discovered in all places as indicated by artworks in historical Egypt, historical Greece and burial websites in China. This is once they entered India and impressed the Vedic hymns.

Genetic proof now reveals that horses have been totally domesticated north of the Black Sea in 2000 BC. These have been tiny animals that couldn’t be ridden. They couldn’t pull heavy-wheeled wagons both. So, that led to a brand new invention: a lightweight spoke-wheeled chariot that might carry two males — the charioteer and an archer. This was the best army invention of the occasions, immortalised within the Mahabharata as Krishna and Arjuna (together with his Gandiva bow) on the chariot pulled by 4 horses at Kurukshetra.

Chariot-riding was changed by horse-riding round 700 BC and have become the norm when Alexander, atop a horse, defeated the chariot-riding Persian emperor round 331 BCE. The Indo-Greeks (Yavana), the Saka-Pahalava (Scythian-Parthian), and the Kushan (Yuezhi) managed the horse-trade from 200 BC to 200 AD. Mauryan kings imported horses and exported elephants. Prince Siddhartha leaves his palace using a horse, however there is no such thing as a horse rider within the Mahabharata and the Ramayana indicating that the epics are older tales, although the manuscripts have been composed a lot later.

Story of the stirrup

If one travels to Sanchi and Bharhut, one can see photographs of males using horses on Buddhist websites. They wouldn’t have saddles or foot stirrups like those we discover on the Varadaraja Perumal temple horsemen. They have ‘toe-stirrups’. The iron stirrup and wood saddle have been later innovations that got here to India with the Turks, after 1000 AD.

Surya, the solar god, was first proven using a chariot drawn by 4 horses at Buddhist websites corresponding to Bodh Gaya, impressed by the Greek solar god Helios. While photographs of Surya with seven horses are based mostly on older Vedic descriptions (1000 BC), that he’s proven carrying boots signifies the Kushan affect (200 AD).

Surya’s son, Revanta

Surya’s son, Revanta is all the time proven as a horse rider, with a canine and looking boars. His photographs wouldn’t have iron stirrups, indicating they emerged earlier than 1000 AD. Iron stirrups are additionally seen within the horse riders of Varadharaja Perumal temple. Thus, we discover horse artwork revealing a side of overseas affect on Indian historical past that can hardly ever make it into textbooks.

Devdutt Pattanaik is the writer of 50 books on mythology, artwork and tradition.