Dhanurveda

Dhanurveda, literally the science of the bow, is a Sanskrit tradition of texts on warfare and archery. It is not one work with one author and date, but a body of treatises by various authors and periods. Tradition counts it among the four upavedas alongside Ayurveda, Gandharvaveda and Sthapatyaveda and assigns it to the Yajurveda. Its dating is disputed. The traditional reading places the dhanurveda in the years 1100 to 800 BC and the first mentions in the Vedas several centuries earlier, but the surviving texts date from the 8th to the 17th century AD. The oldest continuous treatise is in the Agni Purana, followed by the Brhat Sarngadhara Paddhati from the mid-14th century, the Ausanasa Dhanurveda Sankalanam from the late 16th century and the Dhanurveda-samhita attributed to Vasishtha from the 17th century. The Mahabharata, the Shukra Niti and the Vishnudharmottara also mention the dhanurveda. Tradition attributes authorship to sages, but the lists differ. One version divides training into five branches: charioteers, elephant riders, horse riders, infantry and wrestlers. It sorts weapons into five groups: shot, thrown by hand, thrown and drawn back like a noose, permanently held like a sword and finally bare hands. It also describes nine combat stances. Another version sorts weapons into only four groups, and the version attributed to Vishvamitra, as given by Madhusudana Sarasvati, divides the material into four parts, from weapons and trainees to their use in combat.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The individual texts of the dhanurveda arrange the material differently. The version based on the five training branches lists nine combat stances: samapada, vaishakha, mandala, alidha, pratyalidha, jata, dandayata, samputa and svastika. Among weapons it mentions the chakram, spear, tomara, gada, axe, hammer, vajra, dagger and sling. The version attributed to Vishvamitra, as presented by Madhusudana Sarasvati, has four parts called pada: diksha on weapons and trainees, sangraha on the teacher and the collection of weapons, siddhi on training, mantras and deities, and prayoga on the use of weapons and techniques. The fourfold classification of weapons distinguishes the groups mukta, amukta, muktamukta and yantramukta.

Authorship

The dating of the dhanurveda rests on two levels. The traditional reading places it in the years 1100 to 800 BC and the mentions in the Vedas in the period 1700 to 1100 BC. The oldest surviving continuous treatise, in the Agni Purana, was however apparently composed after the 7th century and before the 11th century, when Al-Biruni knew the Agni Purana, and its youngest layers may date from as late as the 17th century. The extent of the treatise in the Agni Purana is given variously, once as four chapters beginning with chapter 248, elsewhere beginning with chapter 249. Authorship is attributed to sages, but the lists diverge. One names Bhrigu, Vishvamitra or Bharadvaja, another Vishvamitra, Vasishtha, Vaishampayana and Jamadagni. The Dhanurveda-samhita bears Vasishtha's name, but is itself dated to the 17th century.

Editions and translations

For the dhanurveda as a whole we did not find a separate edition in the sources. It was printed mainly as part of the Agni Purana, whose chapters contain the oldest continuous treatise on it. The Sanskrit text of the Agni Purana was first published by Rajendralal Mitra in Calcutta in the years 1870 to 1879 in three volumes of the Bibliotheca Indica series, issued by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The English translation of the whole Agni Purana by M. N. Dutt appeared in two volumes in 1903 and 1904. We have not been able to document separate modern editions of later texts, such as the Brhat Sarngadhara Paddhati or Vasishtha's Dhanurveda-samhita.

Details

Form

Text tradition

Editions

• 1870 · SA · Agni Purana · Asiatic Society of Bengal · first edition
• 1903 · EN · Agni Purana · translation