Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.376

v1.c5.376

We are often told that the Madras in north-western India, the Sindhusauvīrakas, dwelling on the Indus, and the Panjāb peoples had an evil reputation among the Brahmans of the post-Vedic age. Even if, indeed, both these views, and Karṇa’s words in the Mahābh., which among other things mock at the women and the promiscuity prevailing in these places, are to be perhaps taken with caution, yet it is not impossible that they were not altogether without foundation. “Father and son, mother and mother-in-law, father-in-law and maternal uncle, son-in-law, daughter, brother, nephew, and other kindred, friends, guests, and others, slave-men and slave-women—all pair, one with the other. With the men the women mingle, known or unknown, just as the longing comes on them. How should there be virtue among the befouled² Madras, a byword for their unlovely deeds, among these untutored eaters of groats and fish, who drink heady drink in their houses, and with it eat cow’s flesh, and then shout and laugh, sing unrhymed rubbish, follow their lusts, and chatter such things at one another as they choose? How should the Madra man speak of virtue, the son of women that throw off their clothes, and so dance, clouded by heady drink, that pair without heed of any barrier, and live as their lusts lead them³; that make water standing, like the camel and the ass, have lost seemliness and virtue, and in all things are without shame—the son of such as these, thou wouldst speak here of virtue! If the Madra