Chariot in Indian History

The  invention and development of the  chariot around the third millennium  revolutionized the art of warfare  and dominated the battlefields for  some 3000 years. It seems to have  evolved in the borderlands between the  steppes and the riverlands. It  is believed that the Āryan borrowed the  idea of chariot from Sumerians  around 2000 bc.

It  is presumed that  these Āryans entered Iran and departed in three  branches. One marches  westward towards Syria, another eastward towards  India and a third  stays back in Iran. The absence of chariot in Indus  valley civilization  suggests that chariot arrived in India with Āryans,  who settled here  around 1500 bc. They used it as a lethal war machine to  conquer the  natives.

The Chariot has played a vital role in  Indian warfare  through the ages, spanning over Vedic, Epic, and Puranic  times, as  attested to by literary and archaeological evidence. The Turk  invasion  marked by the dominance of cavalry arm brought the curtain down  on  chariot as a war machine. However, it survived in the Indian milieu  in  some other incarnations.