War in Ancient India c5.s3.5

c5.s3.5

Then he celebrated it by worshipping the gods, honouring the Brahmans, and granting a general amnesty.¹¹³ The belief then was that God helped those who helped themselves. So worship of the gods was the first thing. This worship was done in different ways. The orthodox method seems to have been to celebrate a sacrifice as we saw in the cases of Yudhiṣṭhira and Śeṅguṭṭuvan. There was the classical instance of King Nābhāga giving away whole kingdoms as sacrificial presents to the Brahmans.¹¹⁴ Another mode of honouring the Brahman was to make a present of the cows captured from the enemy so that they might enjoy their milk.