The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.110

v1.c10.110

**Domestic Ties of Hermits :** General Cunningham, from his thorough knowledge of Indian life, at once took the Sāñcī Dasyus for ascetics, and no one who has once seen groups of *Sannyāsīs* at Hurdwar, Benares, or other sacred places, could for a moment mistake them. The head-gear, the style of sitting, the tongs, the gourd, and the blazing fire, are so peculiar and characteristic, that I, as a Hindu perfectly familiar with the scene, cannot possibly mistake it, and have no hesitation in asserting that the Dasyus in such scenes are entirely imaginary. It might be said that the hermits of the present day are generally celibates, whereas the Dasyus of the Sāñcī tope have women and children about them. But the objection is of no moment, as there is ample evidence to show that the ancient Aryan hermits or sages were not altogether free from domestic ties. According to Manu, “when the father of a family perceives his muscles become flaccid, and his hair grey, and sees the child of his child, let him seek refuge in a forest: abandoning all food eaten in towns and his household utensils, let him repair to the lonely wood, committing the care of his wife to her sons, or accompanied by her, *if she choose to attend him*. Let him take up his consecrated fire, and all his domestic implements for making oblations to it, and departing from the town to the forest, let him dwell in it with complete power over his organs of sense and of action”.⁷⁰ This state of hermitage or *vānaprastha* was subsequently exchanged for that of the *Sannyāsī*, or houseless mendicant, but the distinction was rarely very rigidly observed, and the transition, when it did take place, was so gradual as to be imperceptible. Hence it is that ancient sages are generally described as living in woods and retired places, but not without women and children about them. Ajīgarta, according to the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* of the *Ṛgveda* lived with his wife and three sons in a wood. Kālidāsa makes the sage Kaṇva live in a wood with about half a dozen maidens, including Śakuntalā, in his hermitage. Kāśyapa, in the same way, has his retreat full of women of different ranks, and a boy. Sītā is said to have lived in the hermitage of Vaśiṣṭha with her two sons who were born there; and [90] almost every ancient story book has its tale of hermitages having feminine and juvenile residents. No doubt those works treat of avowed fictions, but it is not to be supposed that their authors outraged the sense of propriety of their readers by describing hermits having wife and children and female lodgers in their cells, if they had not found such things to be common in their times. The Vedas, the Upaniṣads,the great epics, and the Purāṇas, also describe sages, ṛṣis, and *munis* having females about them; and the presence of such persons cannot, therefore, be taken as inconsistent with ancient Indian ascetic life.