Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s1.25

c5.s1.25

The Pañcāla country where Bābhravya flourished appears to have been the part of India where the science of erotics was specially cultivated. We have seen how great was the debt of Vātsyāyana to Bābhravya Pañcāla, specially with regard to the section dealing with Samprayoga, the subject-matter proper of the Kāmasūtra. Some of the most revolting ceremonies in the Aśvamedha sacrifice seem to have originated in the Pañcāla country.¹ The Pañcāla people were evidently credited in ancient times with special knowledge in matters relating to the sexes, and one of them is said to have changed even the natural sex, as we see in the case of Śikhaṇḍin, the son of the Pañcāla king, Drupada.² Polyandry as we see it in the case of Draupadī Pañcālī, may be regarded as an ancient institution of the Pañcāla country and the Pāṇḍava brothers, belonging as they did, to the allied tribe of the Kurus, as we see from the common Vedic phrase Kuru-Pañcāla,³ were certainly familiar with it and could have no difficulty in acceding to it; in fact, the Kurus of Hastināpura and the reigning dynasties in North and South Pañcāla are said, in the Purāṇas, to belong to the same stock and to be descended from the same great ancestor Bharata.⁴ In this connection, a statement of Vātsyāyana is very significant. He says that according to the followers of Bābhravya, who belonged to Pañcāla, as we have seen, a woman’s chastity may not be respected when she is found to have intimacy with five lovers⁵ (in addition to her husband, explains the Commentary) showing that five was considered as the limit beyond which it was not proper for a woman to go; if she did so, she could be approached with impunity by any one. The Commentary explains that in the case of Draupadī this limit was not passed, as Yudhishṭhira and others were all her husbands.¹ The indulgence shown by the Pañcāla people to *five lovers*, appears to be significant. It is difficult to see in it a symbolic meaning as is done by Dahlmann.² It is worthy of remark in this connection that Āpastamba from whom, as we shall presently see, Vātsyāyana quotes several aphorisms, refers to the bestowal of a single woman in marriage to a whole family.³