[Y-Indology] [Q] Sudarshan Chakra

[Guest guest]

Highly recommended:

 

W. E. Begley, ViSNu's Flaming Wheel: the Iconography of the Sudars'aNa

Cakra, New York UP, 1973

 

Valerie J Roebuck

Manchester, UK

 

>

>I would like to find out exactly what kind of weapon it was.

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, Valerie J Roebuck <vjroebuck@A...> wrote:

> Highly recommended:>

> W. E. Begley, ViSNu's Flaming Wheel: the Iconography of the

Sudars'aNa> Cakra, New York UP, 1973

 

An update is in:

V.R.Mani, 1985, The cult of weapons -- the iconography of A_yudha

Purus.as, Delhi, Agam Kala Prakashan)

 

See also: Discoid Weapons in Ancient India: A study of Vedic cakra,

pavi and ks.urapavi O.H. DE A. Wijesekera, Adyar Bulletin, Vol. XXV,

1961, pp. 250-267

 

Many cakra-s attested in early art and sculpture are presented at:

http://sarasvati.simplenet.com/weapons3.htm

 

Cited from Frederick WIlkinson, 1970, Edged Weapons, New York,

Doubleday and Co., pp. 211-212:

'Chakram-- a steel quoit with a sharpened edge, a favvourite weapon of

the Sikhs. There is a simple engraved decoration. Dia. 9 1/2 inches;

width of ring, 1 inch. (See FIg. 176 illustration)...Portuguese

chroniclers have described the arms and armour that they saw...One

writer, Barbosa, describes one of the armies of the Deccan...He also

mentions a weapon of the fighting soldiers from Delhi, in the north, a

steel wheel known to the Indians as CHACARANI, saying that they

carried seven or eight of them and spun them on the fingers of the

right hand. TOday the term CHAKRAM is used for these weapons...Some

warriors apparently spun them around the finger until momentum had

been built up and then cast them, whils others threw them in much the

same way as the discus is thrown today. SIkhs occasionally wore a

special type of turban, tall and slightly tapering, which served as a

quoit peg on which to hang these CHAKRAM."

[Guest guest]

I thought of Begley's work too.

 

Also:

Nanditha Krishna, Art and iconography of Vishnu-Naryanana

(from her PhD at BombayU), discusses the boomerang aspects

of Sudarshana wheel. In particular, a Kamban verse is quoted

with word like vaLari or vaLaitaTi. There are much earlier

poems in Tamil which describe Vishnu's wheel as a boomerang.

In AzakarkOyil near Madurai, Vishnu is called KaLLazakar

(Black beauty), and the caste of KaLLars for whom Azakarkoyil

Vishnu is the kuladeivam, are experts in vaLarittaTi.

Boomerang is cuzalpaTai, pArAvaLai(yam), kaLLartaTi,

vaLari(taTi), vaTTam. ceNTu, a boomerang-type weapon

used in Pandya king legends that they used against Mt. Meru,

is held by Rajagopalasamy-VishNu at MannArkuDi.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

 

INDOLOGY, Valerie J Roebuck <vjroebuck@A...> wrote:

> Highly recommended:

>

> W. E. Begley, ViSNu's Flaming Wheel: the Iconography of the

Sudars'aNa

> Cakra, New York UP, 1973

>

> Valerie J Roebuck

> Manchester, UK

>

> >

> >I would like to find out exactly what kind of weapon it was.

[Guest guest]

1. It may be interesting to note that Khara in Ramayana also had

soldiers who used this weapon:

 

mudgaraiH paTTizaiH zUlaiH sutIkSNaizca parazvadhaiH |

khaDgaizca cakraizca hastasthair bhrAjamAnazca tOmaraiH ||

(Valmik. 3.22.20)

(from zrImadvAlmikirAmayaNam, Mm. S Kuppuswami Sastrigal (ed.), 1991,

2nd edition, Madras)

 

A rough translation would be:

 

With iron club, paTTiza and spear, sharp-edged battle axe, sword and

shining discus held by the hand, with dazzling tomara ...

 

2. DD Kausambi in one of his books discusses how this weapon might

have been used. I can't recall the exact title. He has a line drawing

of a cave painting in Central India which shows a person standing on

a ratha operating such a weapon.

 

Hope this helps,

 

LS