Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.339

v1.c5.339

Then quite needlessly Vyāsa told him the same tale he had told (i, 169) the five brothers before their wooing of Draupadī, and in more or less the same words ; the trishtubh metre goes over into the çloka at the beginning of this piece : There was once the daughter of a Ṛishi, who because of her deeds in an earlier existence found no husband in spite of her beauty. Then she gave herself up to hard penance, and when the rejoiced Çiva asked her what she would have, in her fierce yearning she uttered five times : “Give me a proper man.” “Good ; five shalt thou have, since thou hast said it five times.” And her remonstrance that she only wanted one was of no help (i, 191 ff.).²