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Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6: III. The Wedding

Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6

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III. The Wedding

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A LOFTY view of marriage meets us, too, in connection with the wedding ceremony in very many places in the Old Indian marriage ritual. In the Gṛihyasūtras or precepts for the religious side of domestic life there are found, besides much old-inherited superstition, as an ardently sought-for goal, two things particularly: first, the blessing of children,¹ especially a wealth of stout sons; secondly, cordial relations between husband and wife, rooted in mutual love. Starting with the choice of a bride, that girl, according to a fine verse, often cited, but perhaps seldom followed—stifled, too, among other rules—she shall be chosen towards whom the man's soul feels drawn in joyful inclination, and beside this nothing else must weigh. At the wedding itself there is a whole array of ceremonies and formulas for bringing about a true bond between the hearts; and Kāma, the god of love, is called upon in the wedding ritual, too. With children and grandchildren playing round them, and with these filled with gladness, the couple hopes to live a hundred autumns, in a tender union of souls. This is the ideal handed down from Vedic times, only that in actual life, and also through later growths, it is often darkened.² Here let mention only be made of those exquisite verses of the Ṛgveda (x, 85.24), with which the bride is addressed: “I loose thee from the shackles of Varuṇa (the warden of the moral law in the world) by which the kindly Savitar has held thee bound (up to now to thy father’s family). Into the womb of the Ṛita,¹ into the world of good works, I set thee, together with thy husband.” Descriptions of the wedding as such an important event in the life of the heroic couple are often given, too, in the literary epic poetry, most beautifully perhaps in Kālidāsa’s Raghuvamça, canto 7. The references, however, in the popular Epic are somewhat scanty.

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¹ “The Hindu only marries to have children, and the more he has the happier he feels. . . No Hindu would ever dream of complaining that his family was too large, however poor he might be, or however numerous his children.” Dubois-Beauchamp, *Hindu Manners*, etc.[^3], p. 94, cp. 593.

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² “The keen observer of the inner life of Hindu society will have no difficulty in discerning . . . that the poorest Indian villager loves his wife as tenderly and affectionately as the most refined mortal on earth.” Rāmakrishna, *Life in an Indian Village*, p. 100. And so many another Indian. On the other hand another picture is given by S. C. Bose (*The Hindoos as They Are*), who is prejudiced the other way.

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¹ The natural and moral law, governing the whole world, and, according to the Indian belief, having its origin and most important centre of life and activity in the family.

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It is already well known from the Song of Nala and the inserted tale of Sāvitrī that, as on every important undertaking in India, at the wedding, too, a lucky day and prosperous hour was carefully looked for. When Rāma has won Sītā and called his father by messengers, and also the family register has been brought forward by both sides, Janaka, the bride’s father, says to Daçaratha that he wishes to give another daughter, Urmilā, to Lakshmaṇa, and goes on to say: “Now the moon stands in Maghā (the tenth house of the moon). On the third day (from to-day), at the time of the moon’s house Uttaraphalgunī, hold thou the wedding ceremony. Let the ancestral sacrifice be made, the godāna ceremony² be done over Rāma and over Lakshmaṇa, and happiness-bringing gifts be made on their behalf.” Viçvāmitra then seeks the two daughters of Janaka’s brother in marriage for Bharata and Çaṭrughna, the younger brothers of Rāma, and it is agreed that the four couples shall be wedded on one day. Daçaratha goes home with the prince, has the Çrāddha or customs of the dead and the godāna rite carried out, gives

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² Godāna is a sacramental proceeding carried out on the youth’s hair in the 16th or 18th year, and described in the Gṛihyasūtras— “giving the family cut to the hair” (Hopkins, JAOS, xiii, p. 109). Çrāddha (this kind is called ābhyudayika) are prescribed for all happy family events. See, e.g. Caland, Ahnenkult, p. 100, and especially “Totenverehrung” (among some Indo-European peoples), 36-39.

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the Brahmans on behalf of each son 100,000 cows—golden-horned, splendid, blessed with calves, yielding a brass pailful of milk ; 400,000 of the cows, and many other treasures he gives the Brahmans on the occasion of the godāna. On the same day Bharata’s uncle on the mother’s side comes, having in vain sought for his sister’s son in Ayodhyā, and takes part in the festival. Next morning the princes, in full decoration, with the wedding string ¹ in hand, then go together with the Rishis to the place of sacrifice. Janaka says his daughters are standing in full wedding apparel at the foot of the altar, and so let all be carried out forthwith. “Vasiṣṭha set up the altar in a shed (prapāmadhye), took sweet-smelling flowers, golden cooking-pots (suvarṇapālikā), and coloured pitchers, which were all furnished with shoots of trees, as also earthen platters (çarāva) decked with shoots, incense-pans with perfumes, shell-shaped vessels,² and great and small sacrificial spoons, and vessels holding the water for guests; further, dishes filled with roasted corn, and unhusked corn laid out; and he decked the altar round with these things. Vasiṣṭha, having strewn darbha-grass about according to the precept, and to the recitation of holy words, lighted the flame on the altar and made sacrifice in the fire. Then Janaka led up Sītā adorned with every kind of ornament, set her before the fire, facing Rāma, and now spoke to Kauçalyā’s son : ‘This is Sītā, my daughter, thy wife. Take her, I beg; take her hand with thy hand. As faithful wife she, the one favoured of happiness, follows thee evermore as thy shadow.’ After these words the king poured the water, consecrated with holy sentences, on Rāma’s hand. The same holy rites were then repeated with the other pair. All walked to the right thrice round the fire, the king, and the Ṛṣis. Next morning Janaka gave his daughters their dowries (kanyādhana) : many hundreds of thousands of cows, magnificent cloths, linen garments and 10,000,000 dresses, elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiery, all of heaven-like stature and well equipped, also a hundred girls, fine men and women slaves, worked and unworked gold, pearls, and coral. Then all went home” (Rām., i, 70 ff.). In Mahābh., iv, 72 the wedding of Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son, with Uttarā, the daughter of the king Virāṭa is celebrated with great pomp. Shells, trumpets, drums blare out,¹ all kinds of beasts are slaughtered in hundreds, divers kinds of heady drinks are plentifully drunk; singers and tale-tellers, dancers and praise-utterers take their share in giving glory to the festival, bands of lovely, splendidly decked women take part and engirdle the shining bride. Her father bestows on the Pāṇḍava, probably for his son, seven thousand steeds swift as the wind, two hundred thoroughbred elephants, and many things besides; and Kṛṣṇa likewise a great number of precious things, such as women, jewels, dresses. Yudhiṣṭhira naturally shows himself on this occasion, too, as a true god of blessings for the Brahmans.

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¹ It is of wool (Raghuvamça, xvi, 87) and red (Mālatīmādhavam, v, 18).

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² Thus according to the dictionaries. But perhaps: vessels with shells. Shells, like water-filled pitchers, shoots, gold, etc., bring luck. See my note Samayamātṛikā, ii, 7 (p. 12); Kuṭṭanīmatam, p. 12, n. 1; Toru Dutt, Ballads and Legends of Hindusthan, pp. 55, 56; Edgar Thurston, Omens and Superstitions of Southern India (London, 1912), p. 111; Rajendralala Mitra, Indo-Aryans, i, p. 288; Caland, Altind. Toten- u. Bestattungsgebr., 151.

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¹ Din and music are well known to be held by the Indians, indeed, to be very powerful in scaring away demons and bringing good luck. Cp. too Winternitz, *Das altind. Hochzeitsrituell*, 30.

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i, 198 f. is more important. Vyāsa exhorts Yudhiṣṭhira : “To-day the moon goes into the house of Puṣya ; to-day be thou the first to take Kṛṣṇā’s hand.” Her father has her brought up, she having been bathed and decked with many jewels. Full of joy the prince’s friends come, the state counsellors, the Brahmans, and the leading burghers, to witness the wedding. The palace shines with people and precious stones. The court is decked with strewn lotus-flowers. The five youths draw nigh in festal attire, with rings in their ears, clad in fine garments, sprinkled with sandal-water, bathed, consecrated by happiness-bringing ceremonies. Together with their sacrificial priest they come in. The priest makes the fire, sacrifices amid holy hymns (mantra), and unites Yudhiṣṭhira with Kṛṣṇā. To the right he has the two led round, who have taken one

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another by the hands. In the same way the four other brothers, too, are then joined in wedlock with Draupadī. After the wedding the bride's father bestows enormously rich gifts.¹ And the linen-clad Kṛṣṇa, with the wedding-string fastened to her, was greeted by her mother-in-law; and with bowed body, her hands folded before her forehead, she stood there. To Draupadī, her daughter-in-law, gifted with loveliness and happiness-yielding bodily features, endowed with virtuous ways, to her spoke Pṛthā in tender love the words: “As Indrāṇī towards the god with the yellow steeds (Indra), as Svāhā towards the brightly-shining one (Agni), as Rohiṇī towards the god of the moon, as Damayantī towards Nala, as Bhadrā towards Kubera, as Arundhatī towards Vasiṣṭha, as Lakṣmī towards Viṣṇu—so be thou towards thy husbands, a bearer of stout, long-lived children, a bearer of heroes, endowed thou with much good fortune, beloved by thy husband, fully gladdened with delights, disposing of sacrifices, and faithful to thy husband. May ever the years find thee, as they go by, honouring, as is seemly, guests and new-comers, the good and those that thou shouldst heed, old and young. In the kingdoms, first among which is Kurujāṅgala, and in the cities be thou dedicated to the king as ‘wealth of virtue’ (as queen to Yudhishṭhira). The whole earth, conquered by thy stout husbands with valiant heroes’ strength, do thou make over to the Brahmans at the horse sacrifice, the great offering. Whatever surpassing jewels there be on earth, O thou that art gifted with excellences, win them for thine, O lovely one, and be happy through a hundred autumns. And as I greet thee linen-clad to-day, O daughter-in-law, so will I with far greater joy greet thee, O thou gifted with excellences, when thou hast borne a son.”

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¹ A hundred slave-girls in the first bloom of youth are among the treasures bestowed by Drupada on each of the five Pāṇḍavas. Cp. also v, 192.31; i, 199.13 f. As Kṣattriyas are here concerned, the Rājput custom may also be compared, by which at the wedding the bridegroom’s every wish, whatever it is, must be fulfilled by the girl’s father. Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 526.

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Likewise when Arjuna wedded Kṛṣṇa’s sister, Kṛṣṇa made magnificent gifts. “To them (the Pāṇḍavas) Kṛṣṇa, he in high renown, gave very great wealth because of the kinship through marriage,¹ the marriage-portion (haraṇa) of Subhadrā, the gift to the kinsfolk. A thousand chariots with golden fittings, wreathed in numberless bells, four-horsed, with skilled and tried drivers, did the glorious Kṛṣṇa give, and a myriad of cows from the neighbourhood of Madhurā, rich in milk, shining fair. And a thousand thoroughbred² mares, that shone there like the moon's (white) beam, and were decked with gold, Janārdana gave out of love, as also, to each, five hundred³ well-trained, wind-swift, black-maned white she-mules.⁴ A thousand women the lotus-eyed one gave (them)—light-skinned,⁵ clad in fair raiment, shining splendidly, decked with hundreds of gold ornaments on their necks, free of body-hair, well cared for, and skilled to serve, skilful at the bath, at the drinking, and at festivals, and endowed with youth. And a hundred thousand saddle-horses from Bāhli did Janārdana give (Subhadrā), as an all-surpassing morning-gift (kanyādhana), and of the best worked and unworked gold, gleaming like fire,

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¹ Janyārthe. I do not know whether janya can altogether have this meaning, not given in the dictionaries. The translation might also be: for the newly wedded wife (janyā). According to Nil. the meaning is: he gave to them for those made kin by marriage, as to these kin by marriage.

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² Or: faultless.

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³ That is, 500 for each of the brothers. Literally: "five and five hundred." Is it then rather: a thousand (in all)?

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⁴ As the ass, indeed in the East is often a big, fine, nimble beast, so in the Indian Epic, too, he is usually looked on as swift and valuable (i, 144.7, 18; ii, 51.19, 20, 25; xiii, 27.9; Rām., ii, 70.23). The mule, especially the she-mule is seen as being still swifter and more highly prized (i, 221.48; iii, 192.51; v, 86.12; viii, 38.5 ff.; xiii, 66.3; 93.31; 103.10; 118.13 ff.). A chariot harnessed to especially swift she-mules travels fourteen yojanas a day (v, 86.12). The "Epic" yojana, therefore, cannot be either 9 or 10 or 7½ English miles, but probably only about 2 to 3 (hardly 4 or 5). Cp. note 5 in my *Twice Told Tales* (Chicago, 1903).

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⁵ Or: "splendid (gaurī)? According to the schol. = that have not yet menstruated, and so also he explains aroma "in whom the line of hair (so highly praised by the poets) above the navel has not yet sprouted". On this charm of the woman see my translation of Dāmodaragupta's Kuṭṭanīmatam, p. 10.

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loads for ten men. But Rāma, the plough-bearer (Kṛṣṇa's elder brother Baladeva), the lover of pert, bold deeds, joyfully gave Arjuna as wedding-gift (pāṇigrahaṇika), to honour the union, a thousand rutting elephants, streaming three-fold rutting-sap,¹ like unto mountain-tops, and fleeing not in the battle, harnessed, hung with loud-ringing bells, splendid, wreathed with gold, furnished with drivers" (i, 221.44 ff.).² According to the commentary, Rām., 39.2 and 66.4 alludes to a custom not without its charm : at the wedding of Sītā with Rāma her father takes a jewel out of (or, from ?) the hand of her mother and hands it to the father of her bridegroom for the latter to fasten it on her as a head-ornament.

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¹ At the sides of the head, the roots of the ears, and the genitals. Cp. i, 151.4; vi, 64.58; 116.56. But saptadhā sravan in vi, 95.33, as repeatedly in the literature elsewhere.

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² So we see, that when the girl flies out of the father's nest, then plenty of golden birds fly out at the same time from the purse (or, to speak as the Old Indians, out of the money-knot) of her father. So it is among the Turks (Osmani Bey, *Die Frauen i. d. Türkei*, Berlin, 1886, pp. 49-50, 54, 70). It is well known that to marry off daughters in India often means to ruin the family, and even down to the children and children's children.

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LIFE IN MARRIAGE

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WHEN now the woman is married, how does her life in marriage go on? What is expected of her? What is granted her? The first purpose of woman is the bearing of offspring. In a quite wholesome, if often exaggerated stressing of this great task in life of the woman, the Epic agrees with the rest of the literature.¹ In addition to the well-known reasons more or less active almost all over the world, which set such extraordinary importance on offspring, and that usually male offspring, there are especially in India religious ones, too: the son must make the sacrifices for the dead to his fathers which are absolutely necessary for their welfare in the other world. He saves them from an existence in hell or among ghosts, and leads them to heaven. Thus marriage is necessary for both sexes.²

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¹ This view, indeed, is the more or less prevailing one throughout the world. For the woman, cursed already through her very sex, the son is atonement and reconciliation. To give one example only, and that from a Christian people: among the Armenians the young wife must not even speak, except with her husband, until she has borne a son (Lucy M. J. Garnett, *The Women of Turkey and Their Folk Lore*, London, 1893, i, p. 241; Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, *Die Frauen d. Orients*, 440). From the Indian law literature only Nārada, xii, 19; Manu, ix, 96 will be mentioned.

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² We can read, for instance, in Westermarck ³, 136 ff. and Ploss-Bartels ⁴, ii, 285 ff. how absolutely necessary marriage is looked on by the various peoples and tribes. Here we give only one further example: " 'When a servant (of God)," said the Prophet, "marries, verily he perfects half of his religion." He once asked a man, "Art thou married?" The man answered, "No." "And art thou," said he, "sound and healthy?" The answer was, "Yes." "Then," said Mohammed, "thou art one of the brothers of the devils; for the most wicked among you are the unmarried, and the most vile among your dead are the unmarried; moreover, the married are those who

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An impressive legend meant to show this is told more than once in the Mahābhārata. The great penitent Jaratkāru goes throughout the world, living by the wind, dried up, bathing at holy places. Then one day he sees hunger-racked, emaciated, woeful beings hanging head down in a cave, clinging to a bunch of the *Andropogon muricatus* plant, which itself holds on only by a thread, which is furthermore being greedily gnawed at by a mouse. All the other roots have been already bitten through by it. Moved by pity, he asks the wretched creatures: “Who are ye? When the mouse has gnawed through this one root, then ye will fall headlong down. What can I do for you unhappy ones? I will give you a fourth, a third, or the half of what I have earned by penance, or even the whole of it, to save you.” “Thou art old, and livest in chastity, but our sore plight cannot be altered by asceticism. We ourselves have penitential fruits. It is through the lack of offspring that we are falling into the unclean hell. For to beget offspring is the highest duty and virtue, so Brahma has said. While we hang here thus, there is no glimmer of consciousness in us; therefore we know thee not, whose manly prowess is famous in the world. We are the race of the Yāyāvaras, Ṛishis of strict piety, sunk down hither from a pure and holy world through the lack of offspring. Our mighty asceticism is lost, for we have no thread of family left. One man there is, indeed, for us unhappy ones, but he is as good as wanting; for this fatal one does but give himself up to asceticism; Jaratkāru is the name of the famous knower of the Vedas and the Vedāngas. By him we have been set in this awful plight because of his greed for strength by penance. He has neither wife nor child, nor any kinsman. Therefore do we hang in the cave, robbed of consciousness. The mouse is time, which now having gnawed through all our other family threads, is fastening its teeth, too, into the last: into that simple, mad Jaratkāru, who yearns only after asceticism. Look how we have come down to the depths are acquitted of filthy conversation; and by Him in whose hand is my soul, the devil hath not a weapon more effective against the virtuous, both men and women, than the neglect of marriage.’” Lane, *Arabian Society in the Middle Ages*, London, 1883, p. 221; Garnett, *Women of Turkey*, ii, 480.

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like evil-doers; and when we have fallen down together with all our kindred, then he, too, will go unto hell. Penitence, or sacrifice, or whatever other mighty means of purification there is, all these are not to be set by the side of continuing the family. If thou seest him, tell him what thou hast seen, that he may take a wife and beget sons. But who then art thou to pity¹ our race, the race of his kindred, like thine own race and as if a kinsman?" In a voice choked with tears, Jaratkāru spoke: "Ye are my forbears: fathers and grandfathers. I am Jaratkāru, your sinful son. Punish me, an evil-doer without nobility of soul!" "What a happiness that thou shouldst have chanced to come into this neighbourhood, O son! And wherefore hast thou taken no wife?" "In my heart was ever this one purpose, to bring my body in full chastity into that other world. But since that I have seen you hanging like birds, my mind has now turned away from fleshly continence. I will do what ye so strongly wish, and settle down to domestic life, if I find a maiden having the same name with me, who is offered me of her own accord as a gift, and whom I have not to support. But not otherwise. The child that is born to us shall save you. Eternal and knowing no decay shall my forefathers remain."

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¹ Read: bandhur'iva, as in 13.21.

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But no one would give his daughter to the old man. Filled with despair, thrice he then cried out in the wilderness: "I ask for a maiden. All beings that here dwell shall hear me. My forbears are in dreadful torment, and drive me on to marriage." Then he made known his conditions. The servants of the snake spirit Vāsuki told their lord of the matter, who brought him his sister, who bore the same name as the penitent, and the prince of snakes furthermore promised that he himself would support and protect them; and the last condition—that nothing unpleasing was to be done to the difficult ascetic, otherwise he would leave his wife—was agreed to; and so he dwelt with his young wife in great splendour in the palace of Vāsuki, the prince of the snakes, and begot a son.²

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² Why the prince of the snakes is so complaisant is shown especially in i, 38, 39.

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Of Jaratkāru this tale is told twice: in i, 45 f., and in a version somewhat shorter, in part agreeing literally, in i, 13.10 ff.

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On the other hand the celebrated holy man Agastya appears as the hero in the condensed account in iii, 96.14 ff. When this Ṛishi then wishes to wed, he sees no woman worthy of him. Therefore from various creatures he takes the finest parts, and forms, correspondingly, an incomparable female being, whom he gives as a daughter to the king of Vidarbha, who is leading an ascetic life to obtain offspring. Lopamudrā is her name. At the prince's court she grows up to unheard of loveliness, and when she has come to marriageable age, she is surrounded by a hundred fair-decked maidens, and a hundred slave-girls; but through fear none dares to sue for her. Through her form, that outshines even the Apsarases, and her virtuous ways she rejoices her father (that is, her foster-father) and her kinsfolk. But gloomy thoughts come on the king, as he asks himself to whom he shall marry her. Then Agastya comes, and desires her. The prince cannot refuse him, but neither has he any wish whatsoever to marry her to him. At a loss he complains to his wife that if the Ṛishi is angered by anyone, he will burn him with the fire of his curse. Then the daughter comes to her troubled parents and speaks : “ Give me to him and save thyself through me.” And so it comes about.¹

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¹ Cp. with this legend Bhandarkar, *Ninth Internat. Congress of Orientalists*, vol. i, p. 426; and the tale how his forefathers appear to the ascetic Ruci, who has never taken a wife, upbraid him, and remind him of his duty to beget a son; and how through their power he gets Mālinī, the daughter of an Apsaras, as wife. Mārk.-Pur., xcv f.; Garuḍapur., 88-90.

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Pāṇḍu in i, 120.15 ff. bewails his sorrow to the holy men : “ For him that has no offspring no door to heaven is known or is named ; this torments me. I am not free of my debt towards my forbears. When my life is at an end, then it is the end of my fathers. Men are born on earth with four kinds of duty : towards the forefathers, the gods, the Ṛishis, and mankind, and to them the debt must be paid according to the holy law. But for those that do not look to this debt at the fitting time, for them are no worlds of heaven ; thus have those learned in the law laid it down. It is through sacrifices that the gods are appeased, the Munis through the study of the Vedas (composed by the Ṛishis) and through asceticism, the fathers through sons, through gifts to forbears, and mankind through benevolent charity.” And in v, 118.7 f. Gālava speaks to King Uçīnara : “ Thou art childless ; beget two sons. In the boat of ‘ son ’, ferry thy forefathers and thee thyself over to the other shore. For he that partakes of the fruit of sons is not cast down from heaven, nor does he go to the dreadful hell like the sonless.” So vii, 173.53, 54 teaches : “ For men yearn for sons to this end : Who shall save us from sorrow ? For their own good do fathers yearn after sons, who with friendly hearts bring them salvation from out of this world in that beyond.” Sadly speaks Pāṇḍu to Kuntī (i, 120.28–30) : “ Offspring, indeed, is the abiding-place in the worlds that concords with the law. I have sacrificed, given alms, practised asceticism, thoroughly carried out vows of mortification, but all this, it is declared, does not purge the childless man of sin. I, a childless man, shall not reach the pure, fair worlds.” Here belongs ii, 41.27, 28 : “ To make offerings to the gods, to give alms, to study the holy writings, and to sacrifice with abundant sacrificial gifts, all this is not worth a sixteenth part so much as offspring. Whatever he brings about with many vows and much fasting, all is fruitless for the childless man.” So in i, 100.67–69 : “ The sacrifice in fire, the three Vedas, and the propagation of the family are everlasting. All of them (that is, of the other things) are not worth a sixteenth part of offspring.¹ So it is among mankind, and just so among creatures. Thus it is. What is called offspring, *that* it is which is the threefold Veda of the ancients, and of the godheads that which lasteth for ever.” ¹—“ Three are the lights which man has on earth : children, deeds, knowledge ” (ii, 72.5 ; and K., i, 107.73) ; and as a rule of life we find in xiii, 68.34 : “ Let a man wed and beget sons, for in them there is a profit greater than any other profit.” The sonless man was born to no end (iii, 200.4 f.), and he that does not propagate himself is godless (adharmika) ; for to carry on the blood is the highest duty and virtue (xii, 34.14).² As is well known, therefore, for the Indians the birth of a son is looked on as the greatest happiness on earth. From the Epic we will take only one saying about this, and it we take because of the nobility of soul shown there : “ The gift of a kingdom, the birth of a son, and the saving of a foe from a danger—these three are one and the same thing ” (iii, 243.13 ; v, 33.67). The son is the very self of his begetter in many meanings of that word, born anew from his wife, as we so often read in Indian literature, and also, for instance, in iii, 313.71 ; xiv, 81.20 ; 90.63.

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¹ According to the comment., however, as also according to the printed text : “ The fire-sacrifice and the propagation of the threefold wisdom (of the threefold Veda), which indeed are everlasting, all these,” etc. Cp. i, 74.64. The three things named in the text are the “ threefold debt ” which is very often found in the Veda and then later ; that is, everyone owes sacrifices to the gods, gifts for the dead to the forefathers, Veda study to the Ṛishis. MBh., xii, 28.55 ; 63.20 ; 234.7 ; 269.16 ; Manu, ii, 36 ; Viṣṇu, xxvii, 15–17 ; Yājñav., i, 14 ; Baudhāyana, ii, 9, 16.4–7 ; Vasisṭha, xi, 48, and Bühler’s note to it SBE, xiv, p. 56.

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¹ According to the Gṛihyasūtras the father thus solemnly speaks to his scion : “ Thou art named the Veda, (thou art named) son ; O live a hundred autumns !”

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² And so the man that has died childless becomes an evil, harmful ghost. Garuḍapur., Pretakalpa (ed. Ṣrīveṅkaṭeçvara-Press, Bombay, 1906) 9.56–62 ; 11.4–10 ; 20.4–47 ; 21.1 ff. ; Crooke, Popular Relig. and Folk-Lore of Northern India. New ed. ii, 77, cp. what follows ; Schmidt, Liebe u. Ehe in Indien, 475.

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Therefore, and quite logically, of the four stages of the Indian earthly pilgrimage, the condition of father of the family is over and over again declared as the best and highest—a rank for which it undoubtedly has mainly to thank the fact that with this condition the priestly caste, depending on charity, stands and falls. And the Epic, naturally, often is found in agreement with this. So, for example, xii, 295.39 ; xiv, 44.17 ; 45.13 ; xii, 234.6 ; 12.6 ; i, 2.390. Cp. xii, 64.6 ; 66.15, etc.

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Nay, just as in the old Upanishad, life itself with its pains and sorrows is called tapas (asceticism), so the Mahābh. proclaims the condition of father of the family, family life, to be tapas ³ (xii, 66.23 ; 269.7 ; and especially 11) : “ Here they tell this old tale, the words of Indra with the penitents. . . Some Brahmans left their house and went into the forest ; before their moustache had grown, the foolish ones, who sprang from good families, became ascetics. This is the ‘good’ (dharma), they thought, who were rich and practised chastity, and left brother and father. On them Indra took pity. The sublime one spoke to them, having changed himself into a golden bird : ‘ Hard unto men is that which is done by the devourers of the remains of food. It is a holy deed, and a praiseworthy life. They have reached their goal, having come onto the most excellent path, they, given up to virtue.’ The Rishis spoke : ‘ Listen now ! This bird is praising the devourers of the remains of food. He is, of a surety, praising us ; we too are devourers of the remains of food.’ The bird spoke : ‘ It is not ye, the fools that devour dirt-coated, dusty¹ refuse that I praise ; of a truth the devourers of the remains of food are others.’ The Rishis spoke : ‘ This is the highest good (çreyas), so we think, and give ourselves up to it. Speak, O bird, what is the “good”, we have great trust in thee.’ The bird spoke : ‘ If ye do not split yourselves up into yourselves, and put doubt into me, I will speak to you according to the truth, wholesome words.’ The Rishis spoke : ‘ We hearken to thy words, the paths are known unto thee. And we will cling to thy precept, thou that art informed by virtue ; teach us.’ The bird spoke :

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³ Life itself or its sorrow appears as tapas also in xiv, 35.32, and cleansing through suffering in vii, 78.30 ; for there Subhadrā bewailing her fallen son names in a long formula of blessing the

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¹ Or : filled with passion ?

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çokāgnidagdhās, too, as among the noblest and holiest men to whose world the dead man shall go. A parallel to this is to be found in the *Wigalois* of Wirnt von Grafenberg : the Mohammedan woman Jafite from grief for her husband has died by his body. The poet prays God to show her his grace for : “ Her baptism was the sorrow she suffered for her love.” But, probably, that Wolfram so greatly admired by Wirnt, together with *Parzifal*, i, 824 ff., was here the pattern. Cp. too my note to Dāmodaragupta’s Kuṭṭanīmatam, 297 (p. 44). Tapas is also the work in life (iii, 33.72 ; cp. 313.88 ; the Bhagavadgītā ; Manu, xi, 236), and according to MBh., xii, 263.27 it is the service of God (yajña, sacrifice)—both of which are thoughts which Luther, as before him Berthold von Regensburg, preached so magnificently. That marriage is self-denial, purgatory, etc., is also an utterance of the people in various places.

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‘ It is among the four-footed that the cow is best, among the metals (loha) gold, among the sounds the holy saying (mantra), among the two-footed the Brahman. The holy saying is for the Brahman, so long as he lives, according to the time, a precept from the holy customs, directly after birth unto the end on the field of the dead.¹ The Vedic deeds are for him the unsurpassable path to heaven. Hence they (the holy men of early ages) have so contrived that all deeds have their perfection and effect in the mantras. He that holds his own stoutly—it is thus that success is won on earth, so it is assumed.² The months and half-months, the seasons of the year, sun, moon, and stars—all beings strive after what is known as action (karma). This is the holy field where success grows, this is the great occupation in life (āçrama). Therefore does a debt of sin rest on the blinded, aimless men who dispraise action, and walk on an evil path. The deluded ones live betraying the various divisions of the gods, of the forefathers, and of the Brahmans, these the ever enduring ; therefore do they go along a path that belongs not to the holy revelation.³ Let that be the fitting tapas for you, which says : I give ; that the seers have straitly enjoined. Therefore is endurance in this very thing called the asceticism (tapas) of the rich in asceticism. The dividing oneself among the bands of the gods, the bands of the Brahmans, and the bands of the forefathers, the ever enduring, and the service of the gurus ⁴ (that we should let each one of these have his share)—this, of a truth, is called the heavy task. The gods have performed this heavy task, and so have reached the highest place of power; therefore I declare unto you that it is a hard thing to live for the condition of father of the family. For this root of beings is the highest tapas, of that is no doubt. For everything has its existence in it through this family order. This tapas was known to the unenvying Brahmans, set above all dissension; therefore the midway duty of life (that standing between the Brahmans and the hermit's duty) is called tapas among men. And those that eat the remains come to places in heaven hard to win, having at morning and evening shared out, as is seemly, food among their dependants. Devourers of the remains of food are called those that eat what is left, after having given to the guests, the gods, the forbears, and their own folk. Therefore, if they fulfil their duty, are pious, and speak the truth, they become gurus of the world, and without stain. These unselfish men, that do hard deeds, come into the paradise of Indra, and dwell years everlasting in the world of heaven'"—This the brothers then took to their hearts, went back home and took wives.¹

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¹ Read nidhanād abhi? K. here also smooths things and has nidhanāntakaḥ. Abhi with the ablat. = “hither from” is found in xii, 8.23 (adhi with ablat. = “from”, v, 55.47). Since now ā with ablat. means “from” and “until”, my proposed emendation perhaps has a good deal to be said for it.

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² Or : striven after. I read : atha te instead of katham me. K. offers the unattractive : atha sarvāṇi karmāṇi mantrasiddhāni cakshate Amnāyadṛḍhavādinī, tathā siddhir iheshyate. Ātmānam dṛḍhavādin, liter. : he that stoutly addresses the self, or, that declares the self as firm.

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³ Or : they go (after death) the path of forgetfulness, that is, they are born again as low beings ; or : their name and memory fades out.

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⁴ Guru is father, mother, husband, teacher, etc.

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¹ With this tale compare Jātaka No. 393. The demand that the wife and servants shall eat first is often made in the MBh., too, but is well known to be in sharp contrast with the Indian custom. Also the law literature lays down: First the master of the house must feed pregnant women, maidens, women under his protection, children, old men, servants, etc., and then last of all may he (or: he and his wife) eat. See Baudhāyana, ii, 7.19; Gautama, v, 25; Āpast., ii, 2, 4.11-13; ii, 4, 9.10; Yājñav., i, 105; Vasisṭha, xi, 5 ff.; Manu, iii, 114-116. Moreover, Manu, iii, 114 = Viṣṇu, lxvii, 39 declares that the master of the house must feed, even before his guests, an unwedded or newly-betrothed maiden, a sick and a pregnant woman. Cp. Kauṭilya (transl.), 3.13, and above all J. J. Meyer, Altind. Rechts-schriften, 271 f. Mahānirvāṇatantra, viii, 33 lays it down very strongly that, even if he were at the last gasp, he must not eat before he has satisfied mother, father, son, wife, guest or brother. On the other hand, Vasisṭha, xii, 31 (this being according to Ҫatapathabrāhmana, x, 5, 2.9) gives the warning that if a man eats together with his wife, his sons will be without manly power. In the same way Gaut., ix, 32; Manu, iv, 43; Yājñav., i, 131; Viṣṇu, lxviii, 46, forbid eating in the company or the presence of the wife. Baudhāyana, i, 1, 2.1 ff. describes it as a usual, and therefore there, but there only, a good custom in

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How utterly needful for woman marriage is, we have already been told; and ix, 52 makes a parallel to the tale of the forefathers hanging in the cave. The Ṛiṣi Kuṇivarga, mighty through penance, begot from his mind a daughter, and then went into heaven. Though he wanted to give away the fair-browed, lotus-eyed one in marriage, she would not. She saw no men that were worthy of her as a husband. "With strenuous asceticism she racked her own body, found her delight in the lonely forest in worshipping her forefathers and the gods, and believed as she strove, that she had done all that was her duty. When, worn out by age and asceticism, she could not walk another step by herself, she resolved to go unto the other world. But when (the heavenly Ṛiṣi) Nārada saw that she wished to cast off her body, he spoke: 'How should the worlds of heaven be open to thee, the sacramentally unconsecrated (that is, unwedded) maiden! Thus have I heard in the world of the gods. Thou hast won the highest penitential merit, but not the worlds of heaven.'" Now she promised the half of the fruits of her asceticism to him who should take her hand. The Ṛiṣi Prākṛiṅgavant took her to wife; and she changed for a night into a wonderful and glorious young girl, and lay with him. Next morning she left the wrapping of the body, and went into heaven. Deeply the Ṛiṣi sorrowed over his short happiness with the enchanting one, but he had, indeed, the half of her penitential merit at his free disposal; so he followed her into heaven, drawn by her loveliness. The end and reward of woman is this indeed: the pleasures of love and children (she is ratiputraphalā, ii, 5.112; v, 39.67) and the barren wife is worthless (xii, 78.41). Nay, what a childless woman (aputrikā) looks on, that the gods and forbears will not accept at the sacrifice, for it is stained (xiii, 127, 13,14);

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the south for the man to eat with his wife. And Nārada enjoins that he shall quickly drive out of the house a woman that eats before her husband, as also the woman who is always doing evil to him, or being unfriendly to him (xii, 93). The reason of the prohibition will be found in J. J. Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, 12; 369, note. Āpastamba, ii, 4, 9.11 says: The father of the family may stint himself and his in food, but not the slave that works for him.

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and the gifts that are made by a woman without husband and children, rob the receiver of his life-powers (xii, 36.27).¹

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¹ In the belief of to-day the Yamunā (Jumna) is not wedded, and therefore many will not drink its unclean water. Crooke, *Popul. Relig.*, etc., i, 36 f. And among the Nambutiri the marriage ceremony must be done over the body of an unwedded girl. Dubois-Beauchamp[^3], pp. 16-17.

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From the Song of Nala we know already that barren marriages were to be found in Old India, too, and "in the best families", indeed, oftenest of all in them; and that this mishap was very sorely felt. And the Epic, too, has a whole set of tales of how in a particular case the evil was at last overcome. As the universal remedy, in this case likewise, asceticism, of course, is efficacious. "Sons, that bring much happiness, are won by fathers through tapas, the practise of chastity, truth, and patience. Mothers win a fruit of their body through fasting, sacrifice, vows, holding festivals, and luck-bringing things, and carry it ten months in the womb; and then these poor ones think to themselves: Will they be safely born, or keep alive, or, when they have been brought up and are strong, bring us joy in this world and the other (xii, 7.13 ff.). Cp. iii, 205.18 ff.; xii, 150.14. Among the most efficacious things, too, handed down from of old is magic of every kind; and, indeed, in India there is no essential difference between worship of the gods and witchcraft. It is significant that mantra can denote a song filled with characteristic depth of thought, or a nobility of heart truly raised above this earth, and also a magic spell, of an evil that out-devils the Devil. Spells against barrenness are to be found, for instance, in Weber's *Ind. Studien*, v, 23 f.; and a witches' ceremony in Pāraskara-Gṛihyasūtra, i, 13. Schmidt, *Erotik*, 891.

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The Epic likewise naturally knows of magic for this end, or at least what is bound up with magic. The well-known fruit of the tree² is found in ii, 17.18 ff. Bṛihadratha, the king

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² Cp. Chauvin, vi, 84; vii, 84; Hartland, *Prim. Pat.*, i, 4 ff.; Fr. v. d. Leyen in *Herrigs Archiv*, Bd. 114, p. 14; Bd. 115, p. 12, and the quotations there; Crooke, *Pop. Relig.*, etc., i, 225 ff., and the evidence there; further Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 612; Reitzenstein, *Zeitschr. f. Ethnol.*, Bd. 41 (1909), p. 665; Chavannes, *Cinq cents contes*, i, 305; etc.

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of Magadha, wedded the two lovely twin-daughters of the prince of Kāci. “While he lay sunk in sensual enjoyment, his youth¹ went by him, and no son, no upholder of the line was born to him. With luck-bringing things (maṅgala), many fiery sacrifices, and smaller offerings aimed at a son, the best of the herdsmen of men yet got no son to carry on the family.” Then in despair he went off with his wives into the penitential forest.² One day he there heard that the great ascetic Caṇḍakauçika had happened to come thither, and was sitting by a tree. Together with his wives he waited on him³ with most earnest feelings. The rejoiced penitent told him to choose a favour for himself.” Then Bṛhadratha bowed low and spoke unto him, his voice choked with tears, for he despaired of seeing a son : “O glorious and holy man, I have forsaken a kingdom, and have come into the penitential forest. What could I, an unhappy man do with a favour, what should I, a childless man, do with a kingdom!” Moved to sorrow by these words, the holy man took his seat under a mango-tree. Then there fell onto his lap a juicy mango-fruit that no parrot had pecked at.⁴ This he wrapped with mantras, speaking in his heart, gave it, without compare and bestowing sons, to the prince, and spoke: "Go home again; thy wish is fulfilled." The king gave it to both wives so as not to hurt one of them; they divided the wonderful gift and ate it. But then, alas, each of them bore half a little human being!¹ They had these lumps of flesh exposed outside the city by their nurses. But a Rākṣasī found the misbirths, put the two halves together, and a strong boy came out of them, which she had handed over to the king.

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¹ Read : atyagāt.

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² This sentence after K., where the episode is also further spun out.

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³ Read : sarvayatnais.

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⁴ All that is broken, torn, or harmed is in Brahmanic belief uncanny and calamitous. The Jātaka, which often mocks at superstition, has a pretty tale of a man, one of whose garments the mice gnawed, and who then looked on this as an embodied curse and evil boding of dreadful things. His son had to take it with all speed on a stick to the place of dead bodies (No. 87). Cp. Rhys Davids, *Buddhist Suttas*, p. 171; J. v. Negelein, *Traumschlüssel des Jagaddeva*, p. 209; MBh., xiii, 104.49, 59, 66; xvi, 2.5; J. J. Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, espec. p. 440, addit. to p. 360. Moreover in the German Middle Ages also, it was believed that anyone who had his clothing gnawed by mice would have a mishap. *Ztschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 11, p. 278. The fruit that birds have pecked must not be eaten, otherwise atonement must be made by strict mortification. Vasiṣṭha, xiv, 33; Viṣṇu, xxiii, 49; ii, 17; Manu, iv, 208; Gautama, xvii, 10. It is otherwise in Viṣṇu, xxiii, 49; Vasiṣṭha, xxviii, 8; Baudhāyana, i, 5, 9.2; according to which the bird that throws down a fruit by pecking at it does not make it unclean.

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¹ [From Melanesia for conception through eating nuts cp. G. C. Wheeler in *Archiv f. Religionswiss.*, vol. xv, p. 355 (Translator).] ² So according to iii, 115.31 ff. ³ In the favourable time for conception, from the fourth day onwards after the first coming of the monthly purification. ⁴ As to the endless theme of the tree and woman's sexual life—on which a note will also be found (No. 212) in my book *Isoldes Gottesurteil*, p. 285—reference will here only be made to Chavannes, *Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du Tripitaka chinois*, ii, p. 14; Storfer, *Marias jungfräuliche Mutterschaft*, p. 165; Crooke, *Pop. Rel.*, ii, 99, 102, 122; *Cultus Arborum, A Descriptive Account of Phallic Tree Worship*, 1890, pp. 7, 35, 38, 93 f.; Reitzenstein, *Zeitschr. f. Ethnol.*, Bd. 41, pp. 648-671; W. Mannhardt, *Baumkultus d. Germanen* (1876), *passim*. And for the clasping of the tree cp. besides Hartland, i, 127 f., Agnipurāṇa, 198.4b ff., where, however, kaṇṭhasūtra probably means "necklace". If mankind comes from trees (see also Albrecht Dietrich, "Mutter Erde," *Archiv f. Religionswiss.*, viii, pp. 16 ff.; Hartland, i, 13 ff.), then it is no wonder that the human race at first lived, too, in trees, as we are told in the good Darwin way in Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa, xlix, 26 ff., 52 ff.

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Also trees in themselves are bestowers of children. To the already-mentioned Brahman Ṛcika there comes, after his marriage with the king's daughter Satyavatī, his father Bhṛgu, and leaves it to his daughter-in-law to choose a favour.² She chooses a son for herself, and one for her mother. He says they shall clasp a tree ṛtau,³ the daughter an udumbara-tree, the mother an aśvattha-tree,⁴ and each eat a sacrificial dish (caru) consecrated by a mantra. But the mother gets her daughter to exchange the food in the pot, and the tree, with her, and so things go wrong here, too. For the object of the arrangement was this: the Brahman's wife was to bring forth a pattern Brahman, and her mother, the king's wife, an outstanding warrior; and now things would have been just the opposite, but that through the grace of a second miracle the warlike nature of the Brahman's child came to be put off at least to the grandchild, the celebrated Paraçurāma; while the queen bears the Viçvāmitra who afterwards became a Brahman. This tale is told at greater length in xiii, 4.21 ff.; and in this account it is Ṛcīka himself who grants the favour, gives the directions, and appears throughout. A third form is found in xii, 48. There only the two sacrificial dishes appear, and not the trees.¹

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¹ Cp. Viṣṇupur., iv, 7; Bhāgavatapur., ix, 15. Here also Ṛcīka is the bestower, and only the caru-dish is used as a means.

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The main constituent of the caru is rice. A rice-dish also acts as putrīya (son-granting) in Rām., i, 16; only this account has a far more modern and artificial character. King Daçaratha is childless, and makes the horse-sacrifice to overcome this misfortune. When the putrīya iṣṭi is sacrificed, there floats out of the fire in mighty form Viṣṇu, who has once already been besought by the gods to become man, and he offers the prince in a mighty dish heavenly milky-rice (pāyasa) prepared by the gods, and says that the queens are to eat this food, and will then bear sons. Thus are born Rāma and his brothers.²

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² Cp. Agnipur., v, 4-5.

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A magical sacrifice where the queen is to eat of the sacrificial food, to get twins, is also held by King Drupada (MBh., i, 167). Tīrthas, or holy bathing-places that bestow children, are mentioned, for instance in iii, 83.58; 84.98 (= 87.9). If anyone in the right condition of soul makes a pilgrimage to the tīrtha Kanyācrama, and there fasts three days, he wins a divine hundred of daughters, and heaven (iii, 83.190). This second reward will be found a very fitting one.

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But it is well-known that pious devices do not always help in this matter; a good friend must then play his part.³ And this helpful neighbour, among the Hindus, has not always found opposition from the husband’s side, if he himself was unfitted for the task; rather the husband has even invited or exhorted him, as the Epic and the other literature tells us. In the Mahābh. the begetter by proxy has a very important place.

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³ In India, at least according to many accounts, the spiritual gentry are ever ready to act as such charitable brethren. Some temples have a great renown, because in them "barren" wives become pregnant; while the Brahmans in their humble piety leave the honour to the god (Viṣṇu). As their wages, however, they demand the handsomest

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We have already heard of the blind-born Dīrghatamas, his unpleasing ways in love, and his repulsion by wife and children. Fastened by the latter onto a raft, he drifted down the Gaṅgā, and in the end came into the kingdom of King Bali. And the virtuous-souled Bali, the truly brave one, took him and chose him out for the business of sons, having learned who he was: “For the carrying on of my line, do thou beget, with my wives, sons skilled in religious and worldly things.” Thus addressed, the very mighty Ṛishi answered: “Yes.” Then the king sent him his wife Sudeshṇā. But the queen knowing that he was old and blind, did not go, but sent the old man her nurse’s daughter. With this Ṣūdrā he begat eleven sons (i, 104.41 ff.). In the 56th çloka Bhīshma thus ends his account: In this way there were begotten on earth by Brahmans other Kshattriyas also, great in bowmanship, with most excellent knowledge of virtue, brave, and with mighty strength.

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Pāṇḍu, himself prevented from the use of his manly powers, bewails in i, 120 his being condemned to unhappiness in this world and the next, because he has no son; he exhorts his wife Kuntī to see to it that this be made otherwise, and goes on to say: “Therefore do I now send thee, being myself deprived of begetting. Do thou win offspring from one that is equal to me, or better than I. Hearken, O Kuntī, to this tale of Ṣāradaṇḍāyinī. This heroic wife was charged (niyukta) by her husband to get a son. She now went, having had her period, with pure and holy mind, having bathed (on the fourth day); she went in the night to a cross-road, and picked out a Brahman that had come to perfection (dvijam siddham), after she had made sacrifice to the fire god to get a son. And when

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women as “wives for the god”. Dubois-Beauchamp, *Hindu Manners*, etc. ³, pp. 593, 601 f. Cp. Thurston, *Omens and Superstitions*, etc., pp. 147 f. Moreover, it is enough in itself for a woman to kiss the member of an ascetic to get a child. Schmidt, *Liebe u. Ehe in Indien*, 481. Cp. further Hartland, i, 62 ff., 69, 76, 116 ff., 121 ff.

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