‘The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback’ review: Reimagining the horse and its unique place in Indian history

A writer explains the role of a fascinating animal in making communities, economies, identities, sport, and in challenging gender stereotypes

Yashaswini Chandra’s The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback is a charming book, both in its broad strokes as well as details. From the start Chandra’s passion for the horse as a “sentient being” is clear, but it is not a romanticised affair. And though it is perhaps difficult to separate horses from tales of kings and aristocrats — not least because a good deal of visual material featuring them is courtly in origin — there is a conscious effort to move beyond elite quarters and recognise the role of the horse in making communities, economies, identities, sport, and even in challenging gender stereotypes. This last extends also to the treatment of male and female mounts: while one might presume that warriors’ standard preference was for stallions, communities such as the Rajputs, we learn, “did not share in the prejudice against mares”. On the contrary, their folklore reveals a fond attachment for mares, who in some stories join their affectionate human masters in the afterlife. Chandra begins the book by delving into mythology to locate the horse in Sanskrit lore, moving thereafter into the historical space, down to the British Raj. In the process she also progressively narrows a large canvas into a geographically and culturally compact one centred on Rajasthan. The mythological section features interesting details — we read, for instance, that the horse is mentioned a great deal more than the cow in the Rig Veda —while the historical section highlights the travails of the animal itself as a commodity in human transactions. As many as 11,000 Persian horses could be imported into India in a single batch, but whether by land or sea, not all made it. On arduous maritime routes, for instance, horses regularly died, and their bodies were thrown overboard. While we know of burials at sea for sailors, we don’t always think of the animals dropped into oceanic depths. Meanwhile, to prove to buyers in India that the merchants had indeed set out with the originally agreed number, the dead horses’ tails were preserved, allowing the seller to claim full fees.