[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v1.c2 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c2: General Introduction Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c2 - **Language:** English ### General Introduction ### [v1.c2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.1) THE BROADWAY ORIENTAL LIBRARY is intended, primarily, to appeal to that section of the educated public which, while not directly interested in the technical aspects of Oriental studies, is distinctly interested in their practical results. Those who are themselves specialists sometimes, perhaps, under-estimate the value of an attempt to put into untechnical language the conclusions at which experts like themselves have arrived. They fear that "popularization" must entail, if not the sacrifice of scientific accuracy, at least a relative disregard of scientific method in presentation. They are apt to assume that, unless the reader is himself a student of their particular subject, he is likely to be misled by a non-technical work. The Orientalist, especially, shows a reluctance to descend from the Olympian heights of the periodical literature of his learned society in order to make his work accessible and intelligible to the outsider, whose main desire is not to study the subject for its own sake, but for some other reason. ### [v1.c2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.2) Yet is is becoming increasingly difficult to confine fields of study to separate compartments, and, as the work which is being done by specialists is producing an enormous mass of new facts and new knowledge, it is becoming more and more essential for the non-expert to secure access to that part of the expert's conclusions which is germane to his own particular interest. ### [v1.c2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.3) There are, in fact, two distinct types of non-specialist reader. In the first place, there is the inveterate accumulator of information, who likes to know a little about everything, from the fabrication of green cheese to the structure of the atom; who hardly troubles to assimilate the information he acquires, and prefers, if possible, not to pay more than sixpence for each dose of it. For some reason, the expert has recently become far more generous to this type of reader than he would have dreamed of being twenty years ago. ### [v1.c2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.5) The other type is that of the educated man who realizes that his interest in particular problems of humanity demands that he should widen the sphere of his investigations and find out how those problems have arisen and been dealt with in other civilizations, at different stages in those civilizations and from varying angles and points of view. ### [v1.c2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.6) He may be interested, for example, in the pressing and clamorous problem of the relations of the sexes. He appreciates the necessity for a historical background to his study, so far as his own civilization is concerned, and this he can secure without any very great difficulty. But when a book appears or something happens which draws his attention to the same fundamental problem in another civilization, he is at a loss, because, so far as he is concerned, the necessary background is lacking. It is utterly irrational for a western reader to form a judgment or even an opinion upon the questions so luridly propounded in Miss Mayo’s \*Mother India\*, without such a background. It is also politically dangerous. Unfortunately, it has been very difficult to secure any such scientific and impartial attitude. ### [v1.c2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.7) The BROADWAY ORIENTAL LIBRARY is intended, in a measure, to meet the needs of the latter type of reader. It is not popular in the usual sense of the word. The two volumes of Professor Meyer’s work are not easy reading. But they make available in intelligible form, the results of years of highly specialized labour. They illustrate conceptions of Indian thought which have determined the whole attitude of Indian civilization in regard to the relations of the sexes, for two thousand years, and show how, for good or for evil, that attitude is fundamental. ### [v1.c2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2.8) One of the most vital problems of the present day is that of the relations of the great civilizations one with another. Its solution depends upon a sound comprehension of the principles underlying those civilizations and their history. It is hoped that the BROADWAY ORIENTAL LIBRARY may be useful in this connection. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c2) · Pramāṇa