Mahabharata 12.98.26

12.98.26

idaṃ duḥkhamaho kaṣṭaṃ pāpīya iti niṣṭanan |
pratidhvastamukhaḥ pūtiramātyānbahu śocayan || 26 ||

The very gods with Indra at their head send calamities unto them that desert their comrades in battle and come with unwounded limbs. He who desires to save his own life-breaths by deserting his comrades, should be slain with sticks or stones or rolled in a mat of dry grass for being burnt to death. Those amongst the Kshatriyas that would be guilty of such conduct should be killed after the manner of killing animals. Death on a bed of repose, after ejecting phlegm and urine and uttering piteous cries, is sinful for a Kshatriya. Persons acquainted with the scriptures do not applaud the death which a Kshatriya encounters with unwounded body. The death of a Kshatriya, [paragraph continues] O sire, at home is not praiseworthy. They are heroes. Any unheroic act of theirs is sinful and inglorious. In disease, one may be heard to cry, saying, 'What sorrow! How painful! I must be a great sinner.' With face emaciated and stench issuing fro in his body and clothes, the sick man plunges his relatives into grief. Coveting the condition of those that are hale, such a man (amidst his tortures) repeatedly desires for death itself. One that is a hero, having dignity and pride, does not deserve such in inglorious death. Surrounded by kinsmen and slaughtering his foes in battle, a Kshatriya should die at the edge of keen weapons. Moved by desire of enjoyment and filled with rage, a hero fights furiously and does not feel the wounds inflicted on his limbs by foes.