War in Ancient India c5.s1.59

c5.s1.59

The Kṣatriya could take to the third stage of life, the vānaprasta āśrama, which was the life of a hermit. But still the rule was definite, that peaceful death at home was a sin.⁴⁸ It was a disgrace for a hero to die in the field with wounds received on his back. The heroic mother of the Tamil land was in the habit of running to the field of action with a vow to cut off her breasts that gave milk to him if her son had died of a wound in the back. If, on the other hand, he had fallen dead with a wound at the chest, the mother felt relieved, even though she should have lost her only son.⁴⁹ When kings received wounds on their backs they sought a voluntary death. We hear that the Cēra king, Ātan II, when wounded thus by Karikāl Cōḻa, sought a voluntary death.⁵⁰ The idea of death at the theatre of war was such a ruling passion with the Tamils that if a warrior met with a natural death it was the custom to make the dying man lie on a bed of kuśa grass and have him cut with a sword, the purohita chanting special mantras. In short, war was deemed to be a yajña or sacrifice, and this idea of the dramatist Bhāsa is found in Kauṭalya.⁵¹