History of the horse in the Indian subcontinent

"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."

"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."

"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."

"One must accordingly be wary of making the Indo-Aryans themselves overly synonymous with the horse, since the horse could have been imported in the proto-historic period, just as it has been throughout the historic period, but this in itself need not indicate a priori that the Indo-Aryans were imports as well..."

"As an aside, to pronounce unambiguously that there is no evidence of the horse in the IVC, on one side, or to insist that there is conclusive evidence, on the other, are both somewhat sleights of hands. A more precise statement is that there is some evidence of the horse, but it has been contested."

"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."

"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."

""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."

"Overall, the importance of the chariot and horse has been overly emphasized in Indo-European studies. At times, one gets the impression that horses themselves were thought to carry Indo-European dialects."

"[the adoption of the horse or the camel reflects] “changes [that] were made by the indigenous [Late Harappan] inhabitants, and were not the result of a new people streaming into the region. The horse and camel would indicate connections with Central Asia.”"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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.""

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"It is likely enough that camel, horse and ass were in fact all a familiar feature of the Indus caravan."

"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."

"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."

"The birthplace of the horse, indeed, is the sea, its kindred is the sea."

"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."

"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."

"Let couriers to thy father speed On horses of the swiftest breed."

"Why does no gold-wrought chariot lead With four brave horses, best for speed?"

"Scarce could I move each stubborn horse: Shedding hot tears of grief he stood When Ráma turned him to the wood."

"Śatrughna, look, the mountain see Where heavenly minstrels wander free, And horses browse beneath the steep, Countless as monsters in the deep."

"And thought-swift horses whirled their lord Racing along the earth, or rose High through the clouds whene'er he chose."