Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.69.1

v1.c5.69.1

In the Rāmāyaṇa, in the 17th Sarga of the 7th Book, we read : “Thereupon Rāvaṇa, the strong-armed, wandered over the earth, and when he had come into the wilderness of Himavant, he went about in it. Then he saw a maiden wearing a black antelope-skin and penitent’s tresses, taken up with the work of the holy ones (asceticism), and shining like a goddess. When he saw this maiden with the gift of beauty engaged in very heavy mortification, he laughed a little, and with senses blinded by love he asked : “Wherefore dost thou do this work, that is in discord with thy youth ? For it does not befit thee thus to act against this beauty. Thy peerless beauty, O timid one, which arouses mad love among men, is not there to the end that thou shouldst be given up to mortification. That is an evident conclusion. Whom dost thou belong to ? Wherefore this task ? And who is thy husband, thou with the fair face ? Whoever enjoys thee, he is a happy man on earth. Tell me all I ask. Wherefore the weariness ?” Thus addressed by Rāvaṇa the glorious maiden spoke, after she, the penitent, had shown him due and proper hospitality : “Kuçadhvaja was the name of my father, the Brahman Ṛishi of boundless fame, the majestic son of Bṛihaspati, equal in soul to Bṛihaspati. To this high-minded one, ever given up to Veda study, I was born as daughter out of his words, and Vedavatī is the name I bear. Then there came gods and Gandharvas, Yakshas, and Rākshasas, and snake-demons to my father and deigned to woo me.