Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.30

v1.c5.30

redeemer nor a world-shaker, but Saṃsārahetu, the “source of the world”, the cause of the Sansara, in which, as the Indian says, pleasure, and above all the pleasure of love, is but pain. The birth of a daughter is in general not an object of his wishes. Thus xii, 243.20, says : “The eldest brother is the same as the father, wife and son are a man’s own body, his servants are the man’s shadow, the daughter is the bitterest woe.” And i, 159.11 : “The son is his very self, the wife a friend, but the daughter is known for a misfortune.”¹ We can thus well understand that among the dreadful omens boding the many deaths in the fight between the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas, this one, too, appears : “Many women will bear four and five girls”—and probably at one birth (vi, 3.7). Not to mention anything else, it is only the son who can bring his forbears that offering so absolutely needed for happiness in the other world. With a daughter this can only be done indirectly—through her sons. And that is always an unsure thing. For against wedding with such a maiden advice is given by the Epic (xiii, 44.15), as also by the Smṛiti or law literature.² But whatever the event, the important thing is to marry the girl off fittingly. And here there lies a source of sorrow for the parents. Thus in v, 97.15, 16, we hear the wretched father of the marriageable daughter call out “Shame on the coming of a daughter into the house of men of strong character, who are distinguished, praiseworthy, and of kind disposition. The mother’s kindred, the father’s, and they to whom she is given—three families—are brought to danger by the daughter of