# History of the horse in the Indian subcontinent

The horse has been present in the Indian subcontinent from at least the middle of the second millennium BC, more than two millennia after its domestication in Central Asia.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · From Hindu texts · See also · External links

## A

* When I wrote this report, I least expected that it might spark off a controversy and land me in the witness box before the Indian historians' jury. . . . I was apprised of the gravity of the situation when I began to get letters asking me for clarification of the situation against the prevalent belief that the horse is a non-indigenous species and was introduced into India only by the (invading) Aryans. . . . To make my position clear, I wrote in my article . . . that whatever may be the opinion expressed by archaeologists, it cannot either deny or alter the find of a scientific fact that the horse was present at Hallur before the (presumed) period of Aryan invasion. . . . I have only declared the findings that horse bones were traced in the faunal collection from Hallur and am responsible to that extent only.
** K. R. Alur's reply after his report which documented horse bones in South India generated a controversy. His reply gave a "sense of the controversy and significance surrounding this animal". (see Bryant 2001).
** Alur (1992) "Aryan Invasion of India, Indo-Gangetic Valley Cultures." In New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology (561-566). Ed. B. U. Nayak and N. C. Ghosh. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. K.R. Alur, quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9

## B

* The first deliberate and conscious attempt of shaping a horse in durable material like stone was witnessed in the art of the Mauryas in India.
** T. K. Biswas, Horse in Early Indian Art (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1987), p. 46., quoted in M Danino in History of ancient India / editors, Dilip K. Chakrabarti and Makkhan Lal. v. 3. The texts, political history and administration, till c. 200 BC. I.2. The Horse and the Aryan Debate
* In the absence of irrefutable linguistic evidence, there is no reason to feel compelled to believe that the introduction of the horse into the subcontinent is indicative of the introduction of new peoples any more than the introduction of any other innovatory items of material culture (such as camels, sorghum, rice, lapis lazuli, or anything else) is representative of new human migratory influxes.
** Edwin Bryant, The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture, p. 228.quoted in The Horse and the Aryan Debate by Michel Danino (Published in the Journal of Indian History and Culture of the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Research, Chennai, September 2006, No.13, pp. 33-59.)
* All in all, the evidence... undoubtedly raises the possibility of the occurrence of domesticated horses in the mature phase of the Harappa Culture, at the end of the third millennium BC.
** Bökönyi, S., 1997. “Horse Remains from the Prehistoric Site of Surkotada, Kutch, Late 3rd Millennium BC,” South Asian Studies, 13: 297–307. quoted in B.B. Lal, Aryan invasion of India, Perpetuation of a myth. in : Bryant, E. F., & Patton, L. L. (2005). The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history. Routledge 69-70 also quoted by Prof. B.B. Lal from Bokonyi's letter to the Director of the Archaeological Survey of India, 13- 12-1993, in New Light on the Indus Civilization, Aryan Books, Delhi 1998, p.111.

## F

* All things considered, nothing allows us to take the horse as a privileged marker of the presence of Indo-European, Indo-Iranian or Indo-Aryan speakers. It follows that the entire archaeological and linguistic reasoning... is tautological, to the extent that it only shows that in Indo-European languages the vocabulary of horse and chariot is Indo-European.
** Henri-Paul Francfort. La civilisation de l'Oxus et les Indo-Iraniens et Indo-Aryens en Asie centrale. 2005, in: G. Fussman, J. Kellens, H.-P. Francfort, X. Tremblay, Aryas, Ariens et Iraniens en Asie centrale p. 275.

## G

* "In the west are the ill-wishers whose horses are badly harnessed; in the east are those who are here for giving, who give a variety of gifts," i.e. the misers who have given bad horses are to be in the extreme west, the region of the sunset, thus of darkness and therefore of raksas, while the generous are to be in the east, the region of the sunrise, thus in the eternal light, which is what [the Rigvedic verse] 10, 107,2 says.
** Karl Geldner's interpretation of horses in the Veda. Richard Pischel, Karl F. Geldner - Vedische Studien Vol. 1 -Verlag von W. Kohlhammer (1889) page 302-3

## L

* In other words, the prominent place given to horses and chariots in the Rig Veda can tell us virtually nothing that might distinguish any real society for which the Rig Veda might provide a partial cosmology. If anything, it suggests that in the real society (as opposed to its mythological counterpart), horses and chariots were a rarity, ownership of which was a mark of aristocratic or kingly distinction.
** Sir Edmund Leach. Aryan invasions over four millennia. In Culture through Time, Anthropological Approaches, edited by E. Ohnuki-Tierney, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1990, pp. 227-245. p 240 quoted in THE HORSE AND THE ARYAN DEBATE by Michel Danino* (Published in the Journal of Indian History and Culture of the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Research, Chennai, September 2006, No.13, pp. 33-59.)

## M

* Perhaps the most interesting of the model animals is the one that I personally take to represent a horse. I do not think we need be particularly surprised if it should be proved that the horse existed thus early at Mohenjo-daro.
** About the terracotta animals from his excavations at Mohenjo-daro. E.J. Mackay, 1938. Mackay, E. J. H., 1938. Further Excavations al Mohenjo-daro, 2 vols. Delhi: Government of India. Vol. 1: 289; Vol. 2, pl. LXXVIII, no. 11) quoted in B.B. Lal, Aryan invasion of India, Perpetuation of a myth. in : Bryant, E. F., & Patton, L. L. (2005). The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history. Routledge 69. also quoted in THE HORSE AND THE ARYAN DEBATE by Michel Danino* (Published in the Journal of Indian History and Culture of the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Research, Chennai, September 2006, No.13, pp. 33-59.)

## R

* A study of the theme of ‘horses’ in the Rigveda would hold some surprise in store for those who a priori believe in the realism of Vedic images.
** Louis Renou, quoted in Danino, M. (2019). Demilitarizing the Rigveda: a scrutiny of Vedic horses, chariots and warfare., STUDIES IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Journal of the Inter-University Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences VOL. XXVI, NUMBER 1, SUMMER 2019

## S

* It is really strange that no notice was taken by archaeologists of these vital findings, and the oft-repeated theory that the true domesticated horse was not known to the Harappans continued to be harped upon, coolly ignoring these findings to help our so-called veteran historians and archaeologists of Wheeler's generation to formulate and propagate their theory of "Aryan invasion of India on horse-back."
** A. K. Sharma (1992-93) , 31, in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9
** . 1992-93. "The Harappan Horse Was Buried under the Dunes o f . . . " Puratattva 23:30-34.
* This was the saddest day for me as the thought flashed in my mind that my findings had to wait two decades for recognition, until a man from another continent came, examined the material and declared that "Sharma was right." When will we imbibe intellectual courage not to look across borders for approval? The historians are still worse, they feel it is an attempt on the part of the "rightists" to prove that the Aryans did not come to India from outside her boundaries.
** A. K. Sharma, commenting on the belated validation of his report, which identified horse bones from all levels at Surkotada (circa 2100-1700 B.C.E.). His report was only vindicated many years later when a foreign specialist, Sandor Bokonyi, confirmed Sharma's findings.
** A.K. Sharma 1992-93, 30., 1992-93. "The Harappan Horse Was Buried under the Dunes of . . . " Puratattva 23:30-34 quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press.

## T

* Considering that the presence of the horse during the Harappan period is a matter of popular controversy in Indian archaeology, the subject deserves more serious and systematic treatment than it has so far received.
** Thomas and Joglekar 1994: 186-87. quoted in History of ancient India / editors, Dilip K. Chakrabarti and Makkhan Lal. v. 3. The texts, political history and administration, till c. 200 BC. I.2. The Horse and the Aryan Debate M Danino Thomas, P.K. & P.P. Joglekar. 1994. Holocene Faunal Studies in India. Man and Environment XIX (1-2): 179-203.
* Whatever the reason, the stock has always had to be replenished by imports, and the imports came from westward in the ancient period. . . . It is a structure of its history, then, that India has always been dependent upon western and central Asia for horses.
** Trautmann, Thomas R. 1982. "Elephants and the Mauryas." In India History and Thought (245- 281). Ed. S. Muckerjee. Calcutta: Subarnarekha. (261). in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press.

## W

* One terracotta, from a late level of Mohenjo-daro, seems to represent a horse, reminding us that a jaw-bone of a horse is also recorded from the same site, and that the horse was known at a considerably earlier period in Baluchistan.
** Wheeler, R. E. M., 1968. The Indus Civilization, 3rd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.(1968: 92)
** in B.B. Lal, Aryan invasion of India, Perpetuation of a myth. in : Bryant, E. F., & Patton, L. L. (2005). The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history. Routledge 69
* It is likely enough that camel, horse and ass were in fact all a familiar feature of the Indus caravan.
** Mortimer Wheeler (1953) 92, in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9.. 1953. The Cambridge History of India. Supplementary Volume: The Indus Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
** Mortimer Wheeler (1953) The Cambridge History of India. Supplementary Volume: The Indus Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.page 92. quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9..

## Z

* The horse was well known by the Proto-Indo-Europeans, as best proven by several poetic formulas mentioning the 'swift horse', the 'horses of the sun', and using the adjectives 'characterized by good horses' and "having horses which are cared for". The formulas tell us nothing specific about the use of horses, but archaeology and history supply the necessary information.
** S. Zimmer, quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. Zimmer, Stefan 1990a. "The Investigation of Proto-Indo-European History: Methods, Problems, Limitations." In When Worlds Collide (311-344). Ann Arbor: Karoma. (316).

## From Hindu texts

* The four and thirty ribs of the strong steed, Kin of the gods, the axe meeteth; Skilfully do ye make the joints faultless; Declaring each part, do ye cut it asunder.
** Yajurveda, iv, 6, 9b, translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith (1914)
* The birthplace of the horse, indeed, is the sea, its kindred is the sea.
** Yajurveda, vii, 5, 25, translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith (1914)
** See also: E. F. Bryant, The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture (Oxford University Press, 2001), ch. 9
* Horses had she of noblest breed, Like Indra's for their form and speed, From Váhlí's hills and Sindhu's sand, Vanáyu and Kámboja's land.
** Ramayana, i, 6, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)
* Like youthful elephants, tall and strong, Fleet coursers whirled the car along: In such a car the Thousand-eyed Borne by swift horses loves to ride.
** Ramayana, ii, 16, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)
* Let couriers to thy father speed On horses of the swiftest breed.
** Ramayana, ii, 19, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)
* Why does no gold-wrought chariot lead With four brave horses, best for speed?
** Ramayana, ii, 26, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)
* Scarce could I move each stubborn horse: Shedding hot tears of grief he stood When Ráma turned him to the wood.
** Ramayana, ii, 59, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)
** So in Homer the horses of Achilles lamented with many bitter tears the death of Patroclus slain by Hector: Iliad, xvii, 426
* Śatrughna, look, the mountain see Where heavenly minstrels wander free, And horses browse beneath the steep, Countless as monsters in the deep.
** Ramayana, ii, 93, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)
* And thought-swift horses whirled their lord Racing along the earth, or rose High through the clouds whene'er he chose.
** Ramayana, v, 47, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–4)