The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c6.s1.6

c6.s1.6

However it may be as regards this particular point, the tremendous buffoonery of the situation could not escape the worshippers, and they must have been at least as much amused as edified. If we ourselves look at it more closely, we shall not be able to avoid the impression that, with all her virtue, Amarâ was not exempt from mischief. Doubtless she had recourse to the arsenal of her tricks only for a good motive; but we tremble at the thought of what would happen to her husband, if this astute woman employed in deceiving him a quarter of the malice that she displays in keeping herself faithful. In one word, and with all taken into account, whether the story be written in praise of the fair sex or not, it is always the same creature of perfidy, if not of voluptuousness, with whom we have to deal : or, to put it better, we observe that the quite monastic mistrust and aversion which Buddhism professed towards woman are (we may say) never disarmed. Of all the snares of Mâra the Malignant, is she not the worst? And was it not solely in the rupture of all family ties, commencing with the conjugal tie, that the assured pledge of salvation was supposed to be found?