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# 528 Arjuna.
It was this power to generate fire which was
kept a closely gaurded secret by at least 3 generations
of Brahmin teachers that has led to the belief in some
scholarly circles that the ancient Indians were in
as
posession of some sort of formulae producing explosives.
It is undoubtedly true that fire did seem to have played
some role during the Mbh war. For example, certain types.
of spears like the sakti were used/a fire-carrying and
fire -spitting weapons. But this need not entail the use
of gun-powder or any other such high-explosive substance.
The fire-producing paraphernalia was actually quite
elementary and consisted of such things as dry grass, wood
cloth, ghee and the juice of the Sarja (Shorea
robusta)
tree (III.268.4%; V.152.5; VII.24.55). The extent of the
damage wrought by them depended on their easy availability
and the capacity to stock them on the part of a warring
army.
That the dreaded Agneyastra was nothing but
this crude assemblage of fire-producing devices is all but
clear from the two instances where it was actually used.
Both the incidents took place outside of the Mbh war. In
the first instance Arjuna terrorised Citraratha Gandharva
by burning down his chariot with this astra. As a preclude
to this we are told the story of how the Pandavas tired and
thirsty, escaping from the lac-house tragedy, reached the