Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.155

v1.c6.155

In the same way as this sonless man, so, too, his fellow-king in Old India, Çāntanu, the father of Bhīshma, declares : "To have one son is to have none" (i, 100.67; cp. "one son is no son, the wise say" v, 147. 18). More moderate than these fathers, carried away, manlike, by their feelings, is Lopamudrā, the princess and wife of a beggar : her husband, Agastya, mighty in penance and digestive powers, leaves her the choice of having a thousand or a hundred or ten sons, or only one, who shall be equal in worth to thousands. She shares the view already known from the Hitopadeça, and chooses the one son (iii, 99.20 ff.).