[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v1.c5.349 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.349 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.349 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c5.349](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.349) Like these legendary traditions of polyandric marriages is the evidence in the Epic as to earlier or still existing conditions of hetærism.² The gospel of unrestricted free love, from the lips of the sun god—in this case, indeed, not unprejudiced—has already been listened to by us. The Indians tell many tales of the Uttarakurus dwelling in the north, an ideal people in an ideal land that is a real Utopia. There, we are told, the women follow their own inclinations (kāmacarā bhavanti), and neither man nor woman knows jealousy (īrṣyā nāsti narīnarāṇām, xiii, 102.26; cp. xiii, 2.13 ff.).¹ In the thirty-first chapter of Book ii there is a description of how Sahadeva, Yudhiṣṭhira’s brother, when on his world-conquering expedition (digvijaya), reaches the farthest south. Before Māhiṣmatī, the city of the king there, Nila,² he finds himself in very great distress, for the god of fire is standing by Nila, and everything - [Previous: v1.c5.348](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.348) - [Next: v1.c5.350](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.350) - [Up: v1.c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.349](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c5.349) · Pramāṇa