A bow made of bones

Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

Ram once raised his bow to shoot an arrow at the impertinent sea. When the sea apologised, Ram did not know what to do with the arrow fixed on his bow; it could not be returned to the quiver as per Kshatriya code. So he turned around and shot it and it fell on a barren land that turned into the Thar Desert.

According to the Vishnu Purana, the bow of Vishnu, also used by Rama, is called the Sarang. In the text Dhanurveda, the Sarang bow is described as being made from the horns of a deer, with the bowstring crafted from the sinew or tendon of an animal. The idea of a god wielding a weapon made from animal products can be unsettling.

In a world where vegetarian food is often considered more spiritual than meat or fish, the notion of Hindu gods holding weapons fashioned from bones, tendons, skin, and even gut feels jarring.

Historically, the Aryans, who domesticated horses and invented the spoked-wheel chariot, also developed the composite bow, which gave them a military advantage. Regular bows could be crafted from long bamboo shafts, with bowstrings made from plant fibres--one might call these Sattvic bows. They were effective for hunting animals, but for military purposes, purely in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, the composite bow was preferred.

Making a composite bow involves a wooden skeleton for the shaft/limb, with additional strength provided by horns from a deer or buffalo. Flexibility was achieved using strips of sinew or tendons fixed to the wood with glue made from fish bladders.

The bowstring could be made from sinew or from catgut, which is the entrails of a horse or sheep. This gave the nomads of Eurasia an extremely powerful bow. Arrows were fletched with feathers, and tips were initially crafted from sharpened bones or sticks due to their lighter weight, until metal tips became available.

In the Vedic world, bows were regarded as divine weapons. Shiva wields his Pinaka bow to destroy three flying cities with a single arrow. In the Ramayana, Rama uses his bow to shoot an arrow through seven Sala trees, impressing the monkey king of Kishkindha. In a story from Odisha, Ram shot arrows at Ravana's Pushpak Viman, causing his umbrella to fall on the ground. Here, they turned into mushrooms.

These feats were a testament to skill, but also to the technology used to create these bows. It is highly probable that the Vedic world used composite bows made from animal products, as described in Dhanurvidya.

In mythological and poetic terms, it is said that Shiva's bow was crafted from Mount Meru, the bowstring from Vasuki, and the bow itself from Vishnu. Here again, we find references to organic materials - the body of Vasuki and the body of Vishnu being used for the bowstring and the arrow.

Those who depict Rama holding a bow, and insist he ate a plant-based diet in the forest, often reject the idea of the composite bow. They claim Rama's bows were made either of bamboo or metal, without animal products. This is an example of belief obscuring science and technology.

The author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. Reach him at devdutt.pattanaik@mid-day.com