[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.c5.121 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.121 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.121 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c5.121](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.121) This wondrous keeping or restoring of maidenhead is often found elsewhere in the Mahābhārata. The tale of the princess Mādhavī reminds us of one of Boccaccio's novels. There was a pious disciple of Viçvāmitra, by name Gālava, who after serving long was dismissed by his teacher. He insisted on paying the holy man the teacher's fee, so that he (the teacher) at last grew angry, and named him as the price eight-hundred noble, moon-white steeds, each with one black ear. At length the desperate, vainly-seeking Gālava comes to King Yayāti. He, indeed, cannot fulfil his request for these rare beasts, either, but in fear of the dreadful results of refusing a suppliant he gives him his young daughter Mādhavī, whom for her loveliness even gods and spirits desire, and lets him know that kings would give him as the price of her a whole kingdom, not to speak of eight hundred such black-eared horses; the only condition he would make for himself is that her sons may make the ancestral sacrifice for him. First of all Gālava goes with the fascinating beauty to King Haryaçva, who sees by the build of her body that she, who is a sight for the heavenly ones themselves, can give life to many sons, and even to a world-ruler. But when the love-sick one hears of the extraordinary price to be paid, he sighs sorrowfully, and acknowledges he can give only two hundred such horses. For these Gālava shall let him beget but one son with her. In this strait Mādhavī now tells him: "I was granted a grace by a man learned in the Veda: 'After each birth thou wilt become a maid again.' Give me to the king, so soon as thou hast received two hundred peerless steeds. By means of four kings thou wilt thus get my full eight hundred horses, and I shall get four sons." So then Gālava gives Haryaçva the maiden for a fourth of the price, that he may live with her till she has borne him a son. After this happy event has come about he then goes with Mādhavī, who by the power of her wish has become a maid again, to King Divodāsa, who has already heard of the famous beauty and her story and rejoices greatly. He, too, can only give two hundred such animals, and is allowed to beget one son with her. The next visit of the two is to King Uçīnara; he gives his two hundred horses and with the glorious one he lives a life of joy in mountain grottoes and by river waterfalls, in gardens, groves, and forests, in lovely palaces and on castle-towers, in windowed imperial abodes and bedchambers, till, after the birth of a son, Gālava comes and demands the woman back again from him. The bird king Garuḍa now tells the owner of the six hundred wonderful steeds that there are no more on this earth, for originally there were only a thousand, and the other four hundred have been carried away by the river Vitaṣtā, as they were trying to get them across. He is to offer the lovely one, he tells him, to his teacher for two hundred such steeds. Thus it is, and Viçvāmitra, who is, indeed, a judge of woman's charms, is at once satisfied, and even exclaims: "Why didst thou not at once give me her here at the beginning? Then I should have got four sons from her to carry on the line." She bears him a son, and later he withdraws into the forest as an ascetic, giving her up to his disciple Gālava, who brings her back to her father. Her father now wishes to hold a great choosing of a husband, but she takes to a life in the forest and becomes a distinguished penitent (v, 114 ff.).¹ - [Previous: v1.c5.120](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.120) - [Next: v1.c5.122](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.122) - [Up: v1.c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.121](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.121) · Pramāṇa