Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.258

v1.c5.258

¹ Hopkins makes this objection: In the beginning the Pāṇḍavas disguised as Brahmans are admitted without any question, and objection is only made when things go in their favour. But his deduction that therefore there is nothing of that warriors’ privilege about the “self-choice”, which deduction is based only on this case, is made too quickly, since anyhow the tale in question in its present shape aims at a glowing glorification of the priestly caste. Thus Drupadā later on is anxious lest a Vaiçya or even a Çūdra may have won his daughter. But no one will assert that at the Svayaṃvara a man from so low a caste could have really been eligible. Dhṛṣṭadyumna’s proclamation that he who came from noble blood, was “of family” (kula), might be a wooer, is probably aimed at the Kshattriyas. Our tale, however, assumes that any kind of disguise, even that of a Çūdra as a Brahman, was quite natural at the Svayaṃvara—one of the many bits of nonsense in this patchwork piece of the Epic. Cp. too the singularities brought out in what follows.