Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.335

v1.c5.335

nor must we in any wise be guilty of this offence against custom and law.” His son Dhṛiṣṭadyumna gives his opinion : “ How could an elder brother of virtuous ways draw nigh unto the wife of his younger brother ? ” Yudhishṭhira keeps to it that the highest authority on earth is the mother. In olden times, too, he says, Jaṭilā of Gotama’s race had seven Ṛishis as husbands, so, too, did the Muni’s daughter Vārkshī have regular intercourse with the ten ascetically cleansed Pracetas brothers.¹ Kuntī agrees with him : “ So it is. And I have a dreadful fear of lying.” The holy patriarch of the family, Vyāsa, is present and announces : “ It is the holy and eternal law even as Yudhishṭhira has spoken.” Then he rises, takes the king by the hand, with him leaves the gathering, and now tells him of the cause :