War in Ancient India c5.s2.31

c5.s2.31

At the completion of the week preceding the outbreak of war, the king, the minister, and the Purohita addressed words of encouragement to the warriors drawn in several arrays. This practice is known also to Bhāsa who mentions it in his Pratijñāyaugandharāyaṇa.74 The war is here compared to a yajña or Vedic sacrifice, and he who fights to the end enjoys the same benefits as would accrue from the performance of a Vedic yajña. In the Udyoga Parva of the Mahābhārata, mention is made of a śastra yajña or the sacrifice of arms where Kṛṣṇa officiated as Adhvaryu, Yudhiṣṭhira as Brahmā, the blood of warriors and their powers as the clarified butter, the pupils of Droṇa and Kṛpa as the Sadasyas, the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra as the Yajamāna, and the avabhṛta bath of the sacrifice was the lamentation over the killing of Duryodhana by the mighty Bhīmasena.75 This affords strong proof of the fact that the concept of sacrifice was carried to excess. War itself was personified as yajña. It was then deemed that both war and Vedic sacrifice resulted in the same effect, viz., the attainment of heaven.76 It was Virasvarga to the warriors slain in war. Killing in war and being killed in war were not acts of unrighteousness. Death otherwise was not commendable.⁷⁷