War in Ancient India c15.59

c15.59

7. There are other curiosities which marked ancient Tamil warfare. One was the heroic impulse which animated the wounded soldier. Normally we would expect him to get treated and nursed. But the Tamil soldier who fell in battle badly wounded, refused to undergo any treatment for his wounds. He preferred to make his wound more and more ulcerous and thereby he invoked death. He did not like the idea of living after having been beaten to death in the battle. This is explained in the Purattinaiyiyal of the Tolkāppiyam and goes by the name of Marakkāñci being one of the ten sub-divisions of Anparkāñci of the Kāñcitturai.