Pre-modern Warfare:India And Elsewhere

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'Stone slingers, and different classes of soldiers who held shields stained with blood and human flesh, as well as lances, patted themselves on their shoulders, shouting exultingly, and cut off their dark skinned heads containing such fierce red eyes as seemed to burn those upon whom they looked, and willingly offered them upon the sacrificial altar (of the guardian deity) with the prayer that the conquering king might be ever victorious, when those headless trunks seemed to speak through the drums of untanned leather these words of thunder: 'We have given you our lives as a sacrifice: Accept them' 2

2. The reference is to talai-pali, a very ancient custom prevalent in South India, bearing strong evidence to the early forms of Sakti worship. This is corrobarated by the Pallava architecture. (See interesting article, 'The Head offering to the Goddess in Pallava Architecture', of Dr. J. Ph. Vogel in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London, Vol. VI, Pt. II, 1931.) See also KalaimagaL, Vol. I, pp. 416 ff., where Prof. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri translates the above contribution and ibid., pp. 802 ff., where again Pandir M. Raghava Aiyangar re-examines it in the light of literature.

The Cilappatikaram translated by V. R Ramachandra Dikshitar, p. 125, 1973, The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tinnevelly, Limited.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->