This thread is getting curiouser and more colorful by the minute. I love it.
I was a bit confused, however, by the statement that my idea about the hammer made a mockery of a thousand years of martial knowledge.
As for me, I was thinking of way more than a thousand years ago with Arjuna in the Mahabarata, who was trained by Drona - a well respected hammer man. Then I recalled that Indra created the cosmos with a hammer. So I did a google of the subject.
Types of Hammer Gods--The Aryan Indra--Chinese World Shaper--Scottish Hunting Deity--Egyptian Artisan God--Greek and Roman Thunder Gods--Thor--Hittite, Assyrian, and other types--A Wail from Palestine--Babylonian Influence--Indra's Indian Character--A Nature Myth--Drought Demon slain--Gods and Demons in conflict--Origin of Indra's Thunderbolt--Demons' plot to destroy Universe--Babylonian Creation Myth--How Indra Shaped the World--Elfin Artisans in India, Egypt, and Germania--Babylonian Artisan God--Indra the Harvest God--The God of Battle--Comparison with Thor--Aryan Cattle Lifters--Indra's Queen and Attendants.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/iml/iml06.htm
Surely, if men attribute power to gods via the emblem of a hammer, they also look to martial prowess and specialized power as men wield them also. Ans some of these stories test men's internal power by hitting inanimate things (like rocks).
I also found this:
The Nitiprakasika (Hindi treatise on warfare) divides Indian weapons between 3 categories.
1. the thrown (mukta) including the Parasu (battle Axe)
2) the not thrown (amukta) including a masundi (eight sided cudgel and a Mudgara was a staff in the shape of a hammer)
3) those delivered by mantras (mantramukta) which included the Brahmastra (phurba-like stick)
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vi...imanas_11a.htm
So, maybe I misunderstood how I have made a mockery of internal power and the use of a hammer....
How so, please advise.....
with respect,
Chris