The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.206

c2.s5.206

The ātatāyin-rule permits one to kill anybody that tries to take his life.† The formal list of those ‘not to be killed’ is often given; but if, for instance, it be the duty of the elephant-riders ‘to catch by the hair and cut the head off’ (vi. 57. 14), are we to suppose that these agile monkeys waited to see if the man over whom they tramped was in proper condition, or ‘had a son,’ or fulfilled other requisites of an object of slaughter? Or is it the noble knight for whom these rules are made? But tenderness was unmanly. Arjuna grieves over the death of his old teacher, but Bhīma cries out at him: ‘lo, he talks like a priest; . . a knight lives in destruction. . . Compassion is for women . . . but a warrior is by name a destroyer,’ etc. (vii. 197. 4). Absolute destruction is the aim of all in the field. ‘To die in battle and to escape a foe—that is the highest joy, and this the highest crime’ (viii. 93. 55 ff., 59; the same in ix. 3. 57; 4. 10). This is the real dharma, or rule of knightly right. But we have a theoretical dharma, a theoretical ‘Aryan-fight’; and in such a case (referred to above) it is carefully explained that ‘on this occasion they did not use barbed or poisoned arrows.’ But here the veil drawn over the old battle is too thin to hide it; for barbed and poisoned arrows were used throughout the war.