Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.122

Language: English

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thriving, for the good man and the capable things go badly, and so on. "To the one man, who sits still and does not stir, happiness comes, the other runs after toil, and does not reach that which is utterly beyond his grasp. Make it known unto me from man's own (empirical) nature wherein he makes his mistake. [Probably what is meant is : explain to me from his personality or nature, as determined by the karman; cp. xii, 290.13; 301.24.] The seed that came into being at one place (in the man) goes over to another (into the woman). If it has been set into the womb, then a fruit of the body comes into being, or none; we become aware that we vanish like the mango-blossom [liter., whose disappearance, that is like the mango-blossom, is perceived; the blossom is lost and leaves a fruit behind it, or does not; even so is it with the seed of man. Thus, if we read nivṛttir instead of the nirvrttir often confused with it. If this latter is kept to, then the meaning is the same : "whose growth is perceived as like unto that of the mango-blossom"]. For some persons that yearn for the continuation of the line, and strive to bring this about, no ovum comes into being, and to others who start back from pregnancy as from an angry snake a lusty boy is born. How then has he come into being, as though out of death? Poor fools that yearn for sons make sacrifices to the gods, undertake penances, and then shameful slurs for their family are born unto them, carried for ten months in the womb.

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Others are born into money and corn, and all kinds of things of delight gathered together by their fathers, have fallen to the share (of their parents) through these very happiness-bringing things (cp. iii, 209.11 ff.). The two having drawn nigh unto one another, a fruit of the body comes into the womb, like an intruding misfortune, at the union in the pleasure of love [perhaps: in just as inexplicable wise. I read yonim, which is confirmed by K. But possibly the somewhat unusual yoni is older: "a bodily fruit of the womb comes into being"]. Dost thou see through what pains the fruit of the body lives, deposited by pure chance as an unconscious drop of seed in the womb, (the fruit) which (as a soul again embodied), separated (from its earlier abode) with other bodies, cut off from its earlier source with the bearer of a body (that is, with a new being), stirring in flesh and slime at (that is, after) the ending of its (earlier) life, is bound up with a (new) living person, after being burnt, indeed, in one body with another moving or unmoving body, and perishes when this (body) perishes in the end, like a little ship that is fastened to another one (cp. Meyer, Kauṭilya, addit. 56.47)? [I read with K. cīrṇam instead of cīghram on purely stylistic grounds, and take çarīriṇam, prāṇinam, and paradeham as accusatives depending on āhitam; of course çarīriṇam and prāṇinam could also be referred were at least only very seldom in the first set.

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And if married men and women were granted offspring, then they proved thankful, too, especially, of course, if it was male offspring. Just as the Old Indian literature in general stands out through its pictures of the tenderest family life, so the Epic gives us, too, beautiful glimpses into this delightful world. We have a very sweet song on the happiness of family and children from the lips of a woman in the words of Çakuntalā (i, 74). She first paints a glowing picture for King Dushyanta of the true wife and the blessing she brings; then she goes on (çl. 53 ff.): “When the son runs up to his father, covered with the earth’s dust (in which he has been playing), and clasps his limbs, what could there be more glorious than that! . . . Not the touching of garments nor of beautiful women nor of water is to compare, is so pleasing as the touching of the son who is being clasped. The Brahman is best among the two-footed, the cow excels most among the four-footed, the best among the revered is the teacher, the son is the fairest of all that men touch. . . . Yes, men, when they have gone into another village, (at their home-coming) joyfully welcome their children, taking them, lovingly onto their lap and smelling their heads.¹ And the