Tale of the Horse Quotes

“The use of stirrups in India became established in the ninth–eleventh century.”
― Yashaswini Chandra, The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback

“Mounted archery was practised under the Gupta Empire, between the fourth and the sixth centuries, [...]”
― Yashaswini Chandra, The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback

“If the earliest literary tradition of India is Vedic, much of the oldest art that has come to us is Buddhist.”
― Yashaswini Chandra, The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback

“[...] before different parts of India fell into a pattern of importing horses as well as producing their own, the subcontinent began on an almost clean slate. The native population of wild horses had disappeared by 8000 BCE,10 and it was only the ancestors of the Indian wild ass or ghor khar, particularly associated with northwestern and western India, that survived. The infusion of horses since then can be ascribed to the Indo-Aryans, speakers of an Indo-European language that evolved into Sanskrit, who migrated to the subcontinent from the north and the west in waves from circa 1500 BCE. There is limited evidence of the horse from the earlier, Bronze Age, Harappan or Indus valley civilization. Many of the famous terracotta seals to be recovered from Harappan sites are engraved with various animals, but there is no sign of the horse.”
― Yashaswini Chandra, The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback

“In most versions of the myth, the celestial progenitors of the horse lost their wings at the hands of Shalihotra.8 Eager to do Indra, the king of gods, a good turn, he clipped their wings so they could pull Indra’s chariot and serve in his army. In another iteration of the legend, they were mischievous and wild, managing to irritate Indra, who tore off their wings and banished them forevermore to earth.9 Thus, the horse appeared from both the ocean and the heavens, and it is as if these two myths allude to two of the main arenas from where horses arrived in India. Through much of the history of the subcontinent, horses sailed across the Arabian Sea from the Middle East while also travelling overland from Central Asia, where the earth is said to meet the sky and soar towards heaven.”
― Yashaswini Chandra, The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback