Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.43

v1.c5.43

The sight of pretty and well-dressed girls and being greeted by them with festal honour brings good luck if one is minded to take an important step (vii, 82.22 ; cp. 7.9 ; 112.62 ff. ; xiii, 11.14). Eight girls are named as important objects of good luck on the occasion of the preparations for consecrating Rāma as crown-prince (Rām., ii, 14.36) ; and when at last he comes back from exile and marches to his solemn consecration as king, there go before him, as bringing weal : unhusked corn, gold, cows, young girls, and Brahmans, as also men with sugar-cakes in their hands ; and in his sprinkling or initiation into the rank of prince, maidens also take a part, sixteen in number, as the commentator points out (Rām., vi, 128, çl. 38, 62 ; cp. MBh., v, 140, 14 f.).¹ And like other Indian literature the Mahābhārata shows how a man can get a daughter. According to xiii, 87.10, this is brought about through the ancestral offering on the second day of the dark half of the month. There is other information in xiii, 104.151 ; iii, 83.190. See also xiii, 83.51 ; i, 116.12 (a daughter is longed for). This we shall speak of later.