Illustration
This sculpture made during the period of the Chalukyas of Vatapi (6th century CE to 8th century CE) shows a scene from the Mahabharata. Here, a combat scene involving chariot warriors, archers, swordsmen, elephants, and a fallen combatant is depicted.
The chariots are shown with seven-spoked wheels, a flagstaff and a rectangular box with a single archer riding it. Charioteers, virtually sitting on the horses, can also be seen. The warriors are not armoured.
The use of chariots in battle had declined long before this period and the Chalukya army did not use them. This is thus a sculptural representation of how the Chalukya artists imagined chariot warfare to have been in the preceding periods of history, particularly in the Epic period where they were much valued.
Location: Virupaksha Temple, Pattadakal, Karnataka state, India
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Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.
Original image by G41rn8. Uploaded by Dr Avantika Lal, published on 01 October 2018 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
G41rn8, . (2018, October 01). Chariot Warfare in Ancient India. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9285/chariot-warfare-in-ancient-india/
Chicago Style
G41rn8, . "Chariot Warfare in Ancient India." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified October 01, 2018. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9285/chariot-warfare-in-ancient-india/.
MLA Style
G41rn8, . "Chariot Warfare in Ancient India." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 01 Oct 2018. Web. 25 Oct 2021.