Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.255

v1.c5.255

Then at length Arjuna rose up from amidst the Brahmans to accomplish the feat. To show their applause the Brahmans waved their skin garments, and made a mighty din. Some upbraided such a youth for undertaking what strong men had not been able to do, and feared that shame would thus fall on the whole caste of Brahmans. Others extolled his heroic appearance and bearing, and declared he would do everything he undertook, as indeed there was absolutely nought that was impossible to Brahmans, in spite of their seeming weakness. After several honorific ceremonies directed to the arrow and some of the high gods, Arjuna grasped the bow, strung it in the twinkling of an eye, took the five arrows, and pierced the mark. It fell onto the ground through the hole in the machine. A storm of applause was heard; thousands of Brahmans waved their garments, music and bardic praise broke forth. “When Kṛṣṇā saw the target hit, she gazed at Pṛthā’s son, him the Indra-like, and went, in her white robe and string of wreaths, with a proud smile to the son of Kuntī. He took her, whom he had won on the stage; and amidst honours from the Brahmans he left the stage, he the man of unimaginable deeds, accompanied by his wife. But when to him, a Brahman, the prince was about to give his daughter, rage welled up in the herders of the earth, as they looked at one another from near by. ‘Putting us on one side and giving us no more heed than to a whisp of straw, he chooses to marry Draupadī, most glorious of women, to a Brahman. First a tree is planted here, then it is felled at the very time it should bear fruit. Let us slay this evil-minded one, who scorns us. . . Has he then in this meeting of kings, that is like unto a gathering of the gods, seen no fitting prince? And the Brahmans, indeed, have no prescriptive right to be chosen. The Svayaṃvara is for the Kṣattriyas. That is a