Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.35

c8.35

With regard to the qualities of a desirable bride, Vātsyāyana again specifies certain physical and other defects which would render a girl unfit for selection. Here, as we have shown before, Vātsyāyana quotes from the G r h y . s ū t r a of Ā p a s t a m b a : thus he prescribes—"Let him give up a girl who, when the wooers come to woo, is found asleep, in tears, or out. Let him shun also these sixteen—1, a girl with a unlucky name; 2, one who has been kept in concealment; 3, one who is betrothed to another man; 4, one with red hair; 5, one with spots; 6, a masculine woman; 7, one with a big head; 8, a bandy-legged woman; 9, one with a broad forehead; 10, one ceremonially impure; 11, the fruit of an improper marriage; 12, one who has menstruated; 13, one who is or has been pregnant; 14, an old friend; 15, one who has a younger sister much handsomer than herself; and 16, one that hath a moist hand".²