Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.104

v1.c6.104

influences are warded off by the priest as a partner in the bed or fellow in wedlock. In this, therefore, the Brahmans do but stand in a row with others of their stamp. Holtzmann quotes (Mahābh. u. seine Teile, i, 155) the testimony of Graul that even "to-day" the women in Malayala, all and each, are accessible to the pleasure of the unmarried Brahmans, and that this does not in any way degrade them, but rather it is looked on as an honour. In Dubois-Beauchamp³, p. 117, we can read that when the Gurus or spiritual fathers of the Çivaites come to a place, the people vie with one another to see who shall lodge them. Those who are thus sought after decide on a house—and as a matter of fact it is said of them that in this they make their choice according to the youthfulness and good looks of the women living there—then all the men leave the field open and keep away so long as their reverences are pleased to tarry amid this delightful band. So, too, the leaders of the Vishṇuite Vallabhācāryas claim absolute power over the female part of their flock (Crooke, The North-Western Provinces of India, p. 250). On niyoga and the begetting of Dhṛitarāshṭra and Pāṇḍu, see further Winternitz, JRAS, 1897, p. 716 ff.