Hindu Administrative Institutions c11.s3.20

c11.s3.20

The law-giver Yama condemns the soldier who runs away from the field in fear. The compiler of *Viramitrodaya* quotes the text of Yama, and comments on the phrase, पृष्ठं रणे रक्षदित्यनेन पलायननिषेधः । p. 406, quite appropriately. Tamil literature contains soul-stirring stanzas where heroic mothers hail the death of their sons, and heroic wives of their husbands, in the battlefield, with great joy. One heroic woman gives vent to such feelings that if she would hear that her dear son had returned in fright from the field, she would cut off her breasts that gave milk to him and tended him when young.