Bibliographic Essay

The identity of warriors, the role of the Ksatriya class and the concept of heroism in ancient India has received some scholarly attention. For an early treatment see E. Hopkins, ‘The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic', Journal of the American Oriental Society 13 (1889), 57-376.

More recently, M. Hara has dedicated several short studies to the issue of warrior identity: ‘A Note on the Raksasa Form of Marriage', Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.3 (1974), 296-306; ‘A Note on the Phrase Dharma-Ksetre Kuru-Ksetre', Journal of Indian Philosophy 27.1/2 (1999), 56-8; and ‘Apsaras and Hero', Journal of Indian Philosophy 29.1/2 (2001), 135-53. For a survey of issues relating to warfare see J. Whitaker, ‘Warfare in Ancient India', in B. Meissner et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of War, vol.i, War and the Ancient World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). On the supernatural nature of epic heroes and their weaponry see J. Whitaker's ‘Divine Weapons and Tejas in the Two Indian Epics', Indo-Iranian Journal 43.2 (2000), 87-113, and ‘How the Gods Kill: The Narayana Astra Episode, the Death of Ravana, and the Principles of Tejas in the Indian Epics', Journal of Indian Philosophy 30.4 (2002), 403-30.

While the concept of heroism in ancient India has received some scholarly attention, it has been poorly defined. For a critical reflection see J. Whitaker, Strong Arms and Drinking Strength: Masculinity, Violence, and the Body in Ancient India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 59-62. The Sanskrit terms vira and virya are typically translated as ‘hero' and ‘heroism' respectively, but I have argued that in the Rgveda they convey an explicitly gendered meaning as ‘virile/brave man' and ‘virility, manliness, masculine power', while the term sura designates the true heroic champion (Strong Arms and Drinking Strength, pp. 59-108 and 109-31).

For further consideration see J. Whitaker, ‘I Boldly Took the Mace (Vajra) for Might: Ritually Weaponizing a Warrior's Body in Ancient India', International Journal of Hindu Studies 20.1 (2016), 51-94. Likewise, vira and sura are frequently conflated in the secondary literature: see H. Brückner et al. (eds.), The Concept of Hero in Indian Culture (New Delhi: Manohar, 2007), which lacks any critical analysis of the exact nature of heroism; Brückner (p. x) states somewhat naively that the Sanskrit words vira, marya, sura/sula and malla mean ‘hero' and correspond to the ancient Greek term heros (following Sontheimer); cf. Bollee (pp. 1-5) in the same volume. According to K. McGrath, The Sanskrit Hero: Karna in the Mahaibhairata (Leiden: Brill, 2004), no substantive semantic differences exist between vira and sura in the Mahabharata (see pp. 23, 55), yet elsewhere he notes that although displaying close synonymy, the term vlra is best translated as ‘warrior', whereas sura means ‘hero' (p. 28, n.8). While the six epic chapters are not indicative of the whole epic, a clear semantic distinction can be seen in the use of vlra and sura. In this vein, P. Caracchi has drawn a more definitive conclusion about the meaning of vlra and sura in medieval bhakti texts of the Sant tradition; namely, that sura denotes ‘hero': ‘The Hero in Sant Tradition', in Alessandro Monti (ed.), Hindu Masculinities Across the Ages: Updating the Past (Torino: L'Harmattan Italia, 2002), pp. 223-45.

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Source: Fagan Garrett G., Fibiger Linda, Hudson Mark, Trundle Matthew (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 756 p.. 2020

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