Tirukural

CHAPTER 78

Military Pride

771

Dare you not, my enemies, to stand against my monarch! Many who did now stand as stone monuments.§

772

It is more gratifying to carry a lance that missed an elephant than to hold an arrow that hit a thicket-dwelling rabbit.§

773

Intrepid courage is what they call valor, and clemency toward the defeated is its sharp edge.§

774

Having hurled his spear at a battlefield elephant, the hero found another piercing his side and grasped it with glee.§

775

Is it not a disgraceful defeat to the courageous warrior if his defiant eyes so much as blink when a lance is hurled at him?§

776

When recounting his days, the heroic soldier regards all those on which no battle scars were sustained as squandered.§

777

To fasten the warrior’s anklet on one who desires glory more than life is to decorate heroism with distinction.§

778

Men of courage who do not fear for their lives in battle do not forfeit soldierly ardor, even if the king prohibits their fighting.§

779

Who would dare deride as defeated men who die fulfilling valor’s vow?§

780

Heroic death that fills the sovereign’s eyes with tears worth begging for and then dying for.§