Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.20

v1.c6.20

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.