Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.390

v1.c5.390

or has it only the practical purpose of begetting, or does it only serve the ends of the lowest sensuality, does it spring from evil powers? So he comes to Bhīshma and asks: “But what is called married duty,¹ O bull of the Bharatas, which first arises at the time of taking the hand of women, how is it with this according to tradition? Does that, which the great seers have called the rule of duty in common, spring from the holy Rishis (the compilers of the divine word, of the Veda), or from the god of procreation, or from the demons? Here, so methinks, lurks a great and conflicting doubt. And whatever wedded duty is here on earth, what becomes of it after death? For the dead in heaven,² is there still wedded duty? But when one (of the husband and wife) dies first, where stays then the other, tell me, since mankind, the many, partake of divers fruits of their toil, are set to divers work (karman), are going towards divers hells as their destination?³ ‘Women are untrue,’ is the verdict of the compilers of the Sūtras.⁴ If, now, women are untrue, why does the tradition speak of the duty in common?⁵ ‘Women are untrue,’ so we read, too, in the Veda. Is dharma (duty, order) now here a first (real) term? A metaphorical expression? A rule for a determined case?⁶ This seems to me dark and confused, as I ponder on it ever. Therefore, do thou, O grandfather, thou so deeply wise, unfold this all to me, set beyond doubt according to revelation, and in its wholeness, when, of what kind,¹ and how it was introduced.” Bhishma’s answer to these truly hard and intricate questions is, in more ways than one, truly Indian. He tells him as follows: The mighty one in penance, Ashṭavakra, wishes to wed, and woos Suprabhā, without compare on earth for loveliness, the daughter of the Ṛishi Vadānya, distinguished, too, on account of her excellent character and pure life, one who ravishes Ashṭavakra’s heart at the first sight like a flower-strewn forest in spring. The Ṛishi says the wooer must go up to the holy north, where Çiva and Umā with their servants do dwell and take their delight, where the periods of the world’s ending and the seasons of the year, the periods of men and of the gods, in bodily shape, bring the god their worship; he will at last come into a dark-leaved, glorious forest, and meet with a splendid old woman; then he is to come back home and wed. Ashṭavakra now wanders ever towards the north, reaching, in the Himālaya, Kubera’s abode, where he is entertained most splendidly, so that, to the sound of godlike music, he there spends a whole year of the gods.² Then he goes on his way and reaches that forest country, which is glorious with