The Kalavali is one of the most detailed descriptions we possess of a battleﬁeld in the Tamil country, and the poem supplies in a casual way much interesting information of military affairs. The soldiers, infan- try and cavalry alike wore leather sandals for the protection of their feet. The nobles and princes rode on elephants, and the commanders drove in pennon chariots. The poet says that women whose husbands were killed bewailed their loss on the ﬁeld of Kalum- alam, unless this is more rhetoric, we must suppose that women, at least of the higher orders, sometimes accompanied their husbands to the ﬁelds.