Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s6.t1.12

c8.s6.t1.12

Ordinarily also it is the wife who looks after the performance of the daily worship of gods at the household temple and the due performance of rites and the offering of gifts at the three fixed periods in the day—morning, mid-day and evening. She takes upon herself the observance of the vows and fasts that fall to the share of her husband. Sometimes the lady vowed gifts and offerings to the gods, and when her lord acquired some wealth, or obtained success in any venture, or regained his health after some illness, she carried out her vow.¹ To institute the worship of some deity was one of the dear desires of the women.² The qualities enumerated by Suddhodana as requisite for a bride for the young Siddhartha³ are very much the same as those in the picture given above by Vātsyāyana of a virtuous and devoted wife.