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1. Kacagrahani 2. Yantrani鈥擪acagrahani too, was some kind of a noose or lasso, fitted with a special mechanism. When the noose was hurled it got entangled in the opponent's hair either pulling him down or lifting him up from his mount. This is an inference drawn from the name 'kacagrahani', gripping at the hair. This device was never actually used, but was one of the mechanisms gaurding the defences of Dwaraka (III.16.5-8) and is refered to only once more, along with a host of other weapons that littered the battlefield of Kuruksetra (VIII.35.25). Yantrani were different mechanical contrivances deployed along the fortified walls of cities like Indraprastha (I.199.32), Dwarka (III.16.5) and Lanka (III.268.30), as well as on an open battlefield like Kuruksetra (VI.92.69), 510

= 511 but nowhere in the Epic do we get any clear idea of what these mechanisms looked like or how they functioned. That a large number of them were deployed at the same time is obvious from the plural that is generally used (III. 24.3,268.30; VI.50.49, 92.69), and moreover at Indraprastha an entire network of them was put up on the walls (yantrajala) (I. 199.32). There is, however, every reason to believe that at least some of these machines were devices like the cakra and the kacagrahani, while the others were some kinds of slings and catapults. This is not a mere assumption, for the Mahabharata itself describes the cakra gaurding the ' ' amrta', as a superb mechanism of the gods (1.29.2). The largescale use of sling balls and stones of varying sizes too, is an indication of the use of slings and catapults of all kinds, from simple V-shaped wood and leather ones, carried in hands to complicated mechanisms, hurling huge stone slabs and boulders. The Dronaparva describes how some of the Kaurava soldiers, mounted on elephants got caught in yantras and found themselves dangling helplessly from the animal's back. After that it was an easy work for Arjuna, who pinned down two and three men at a time, with a single arrow (VII.65.21). This description gives only a remote idea of how some of these machines must have worked. It is quite possible that they comprised of such simple

512 devices as the noose or the lasso, at times furnished with contrivances that got entangled in the hair or the clothes of enemy soldiers, dragging them down from their mounts. Caught thus in these machines, the helpless victims could do nothing to disentangle themselves, and fell an easy prey to the accurate markmanship of a chariotriding archer. No wonder then that Yudhisthira collected some huge yantras in preparation for the war (V.150.81). However, the use of any kind of mechanical devices in the Mahabharata is almost negligible.