The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.27

c2.s5.27

The hero-king of the Epic is told that he may make his mind easy for the slaughter of so many human creatures by performing a penance —‘even a little penance,’ it is contemptuously added. The whole passage shows disdain for the weak sorrow of a king who could grieve for the deaths caused by his glorious wars, and adduces the constant argument that a king should ‘protect:’ or, as here applied, should ‘protect his rights;’ for the king’s duty is to slay anyone that turns right into wrong, it is fate; the king is not the slayer of the men that die in battle, it is the woodman; the king is not the slayer of the tree it is the woodman; the king is not the slayer of the men that die in battle; even the gods once filled the earth with bloody oceans, when they fought with the demons; if it lies on the king’s conscience that many have been slain for his sake, let him do penance; or, if he will, let him perform the great horse-sacrifice, which will certainly relieve his soul of all evil (xii. 32. 2 ff.—33. 25; 97. 1 ff. : cf. ib. 23, ‘it is a sin to die in bed,’ and, therefore, a virtue to die in battle). The metaphor of the ocean of blood is elsewhere fully carried out. Compare the battle-scenes below, or e. g. xii. 55. 18: the bodies are islands; the flags, the sea-foam; one waters earth with blood; grasses it with hair; hills it with corpses.