Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.49

v1.c6.49

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