Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.283

v1.c5.283

In spite of all the promises Çakuntalā never heard another word from her husband; her son came into the world, and from childhood’s years stood forth as a miracle of strength, courage, and noble fierceness: tigers, elephants, and other dangerous beasts he bound to trees, when he was six years old, bestrode them, and rode about on them. Then spoke the holy man: “To dwell long with kinsfolk does not befit women, for it destroys the good name, seemly life, and virtue.” ¹ And he sent away his daughter and the boy, accompanied by his disciples, to the king, that his, the king’s scion, might be consecrated as crown prince. Çakuntalā presented his son to the ruler, and reminded him of the promise he had given her. But although the prince well remembered all, he said : “I do not remember. To whom then dost thou belong, thou shameless penitent? I know of no union with thee, whether in pious duty, or in love, or in profit. Go, or stay here, as thou wilt; whatever thou wishest, do it.” “Thus addressed, she of the lovely hips stood there as one put to shame, the wretched one, as though senseless for sorrow, like a motionless tree-stump. With eyes reddened with emotion and indignation, with quivering lips, scorching him, as it were, with stolen glances, she gazed at him sideways. With features drawn, and goaded on by anger, she withheld her fiery powers heaped up through her mortifications. Having pondered a moment, filled with anguish and indignation, she looked at her husband, and angrily spoke the words : ‘Why speakest thou, O great king, though thou knowest it, without scruple like any ordinary man : I do not know about it? Thine heart knows here of truth and falsehood. Do thou speak what is fitting and good as an impartial witness; do not scorn thine own self. He that forces his own self otherwise than it is made, what a crime has he not committed, he the thief robbing his own self! ²