The raja described the bows he trained with as shorter recurved bows, made out of metal. He recalled a tradition that the bow should be as tall as the individual, but he remembered his bows as shorter, maybe 36" when braced. A couple of examples of these short metal recurve bows are on display in the Government Museum of Madras. Both steel and brass bows were used by members of royal families in competition during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Steel bows have a long history in India, as very early texts make mention of steel bows. By the time of the Mughal period (beginning mid-1500s), steel bows that were highly decorated, sometimes with gold and silver inlay, were fixtures in royal households. Though there is evidence that steel bows were earlier used in warfare, by the end of the seventeenth century of so, they may have become weapons for royal display. Several sources maintain that the range of a steel bow was limited in comparison with the composite bows of India. However, Robert P. Elmer, in his classic work, Target Archery, notes an advantage of a steel bow. Being of metal, it "never needed to be unstrung and so it could be kept at hand in the house as a weapon for instant defense."
The Tanjavur raja stated he trained with a bow made out of brass, a metal that many archery aficionados whom I have since spoken with have questioned. But the king was emphatic: his bow was brass. He may have meant bronze, as in India, the two terms are used inter- changeably.
The king described his bow as short, rounded, both in the grip and along its body, and decorated with a floral motif etched in the back. The ears of the bow were highly articulated, curling towards the back of the bow. He also drew a picture of what he called the kalasam (see figure 1), a tear-drop shaped plate projecting out from the back of the bow above the grip that served to fix the aiming point when shooting. He recalled the strength drawing the bow required of him, noting that the extent to which a bow was drawn depended upon an individual's ability. He remembered the bow string being made out of animal--perhaps cow--gut.
The raja said he has no idea what happened to the bows he remembers in the palace. Simply lost is how he put it. He did remember one bow that represented the royal line when his father held public audiences, or durbar as it is known in India. He had an idea that the bow might be found in a local goddess temple where it was routinely kept, as a number of royal rituals centred around the power derived from and associated with the goddess tradition.
One important annual ritual known as Dasara comes at the end of the autumn Navaratra goddess festival also called Durgapuja. In part the Navaratra festival celebrates the goddess's association with military success as there are several mythic accounts of the goddess Durga slaying a demon to restore order in the world. The festival is also associated with an episode from the Ramayana that exemplifies royal military success.
Undertaken on Vijayadasami, the tenth day of Navaratri, Dasara likewise has overtones of a victory celebration, recalling victories of the past and ensuring continued success in the future. It is marked by the worship of the royal weapons, today symbolized by two swords. In the past royal bows were also consecrated in this ceremony. This rite which pays homage to the emblems of kingship is rooted in an understanding of the relationship between the goddess and sovereign power. In this rite, the royal weapons are understood to be empowered by the goddess's presence.
_ivaji, the seventeenth century Marathi military leader who founded the Tanjavur royal line, is said to have received his sword from the goddess Bhavani, his line's tutelary deity. According to one account, he kept the sword on the goddess's altar when not in use; likewise the present raja thought the bow that represented his line was kept in, and might still be found in the goddess temple. He also noted that the Dasara celebration is still undertaken in Tanjavur, though the victory now invoked is conquest of evil rather than military success.
In addition to the consecration of royal weapons on the day of Vijayadasami, the Maratha kings of Tanjavur demonstrated their archery skills in a pavilion in front of the goddess temple. That pavilion is called the seemollanghan chavadi, a name that translated to mean the site representing the imperial power, or ability to cross borders (seema=border; ullanghan=to cross; chavadi=building).
There in an event that echoes the scene in the Mahabharata that I have described above, the king would take aim and shoot at an specified object to symbolize his prowess as well as his ability to overcome any adversary, whether human or in the form of a malevolent force. The demonstration was a statement of the king's sovereignty and the extension of his protection over his domain. Likewise, because of its auspiciousness, the day of Vijayadasami was when princes were introduced to martial arts, including archery. The day marked the beginning of their formal training under an eminent guru.
Initiation Rite
The present raja was initiated into archery at the age of 13, the age of puberty, with a formal ceremony. In this initiation, he was ritually bound both his teacher and to his bow, before he was allowed to draw it. The rite was undertaken at the proper astrological moment, the avittam nakshatra, an asterism identified with Mahisa, a form of the goddess, that occurs during the Tamil month of Avani. The initiation ceremony was done in accordance with South Indian ritual procedure; the young prince was tied to his guru with a yellow thread fastened around his wrist as a priest chanted mantras that fortified the bond. The preceptor then handed the prince the bow he was to use during his training, whereupon he was instructed in the ritual process that followed. First he was to place flowers on the bow and arrows--in effect to invoke and honour the force of the goddess present in the weapon--and to recognize the divine presence in that bow by consecrating it with kumkum, a red powder used on temple images. After anointing the bow with kunkum, the prin