Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.360

v1.c5.360

In the Mahābh., i, 122 King Pāṇḍu makes the following speech to his wife, “harmonizing with law and virtue.” “Now will I make known to thee the true essence of dharma (law, custom, virtue), listen unto me, the ancient dharma perceived by the lofty-minded knowers of it. In former times, as is well known, women were left unhindered,² O thou of the lovely face, going the way of their desires, in freedom, O sweet-smiling one. When they, from the years of maidenhood on, did trick their husbands,³ that was nothing wrong, O lovely-hipped one, but rather that was the right thing in former times. And the same moral law of early times is followed still to-day, free from love and anger, by the beings that linger in an animal-birth. This is the moral order laid down by the rule of conduct¹; it was honoured by the great Ṛishi through observance, and to-day is still honoured among the Uttarakurus, O thou with the banana-like thighs. For this is the eternal law that shows favour to women. By whom, however, and on what grounds, a short while ago the barrier of to-day was set up in our world—learn this now at full length, O brightly-smiling one, from me. There was once a great Ṛishi, Uddālaka by name, thus we have heard. Çvetaketu was his famous son, the Muni. This Çvetaketu set up this barrier of the moral law, and from anger, O thou with lotus-leaf eyes. Hear from me why. Once, then, a Brahman took Çvetaketu’s mother by the hand, before his father’s eyes, and said: ‘Let us go.’ Driven by displeasure, the Ṛishi’s son gave himself up to wrath, when he saw his mother thus led away as though by force. To the angry Çvetaketu his father spoke, when he saw him thus: ‘Do not yield thyself up to wrath, O dear one. This is the eternal law. For the female beings of all kinds are unhindered (anāvrita). As the cows stand before our eyes, dear one, so are all creatures in their various kinds.’² But the Ṛishi’s son would not bear with this law, and he laid down the following moral order for woman and man, among human beings only, O excellent one, but not among other creatures; and since that time this moral rule has been in existence, and so we have heard: ‘If a woman is unfaithful to her husband, then, from to-day onwards, that is a crime leading to loss of caste, like the killing of a child in the womb, gruesome and bringing down evil. And in like wise it is a crime leading to loss of caste, if a man is unfaithful to his wife, that has walked in maidenly chastity and keeps faith with her husband. A wife lays the same burden on herself, if she be charged by her husband for the sake of a son,¹ and does