Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.80.3

v1.c6.80.3

Indra was to beget her the third son, that he might become an all-powerful hero and overcomer of foes, like the king of the gods himself ; and so her husband taught her a strict way of mortification, which she had to carry out for a whole year, and he, too, gave himself up, for the same end, to most fervent devotion and asceticism, standing on one leg. And this yielded fruit. Indra appeared to Pāṇḍu and promised to fulfil his wish ; Kuntī now brought up the prince of heaven by magic, and he begat Arjuna with her. The happy father, for whom others, immortals too, themselves so willingly brought the finest boys into the world, was now really caught up in a wave of enthusiasm and in a stronger yearning after sons ; so he wanted still more of Kuntī. But she repulsed him angrily : “ More than three sons are not granted even in misfortune. If there were another the wife would become one that is unbridled (svairiṇī), and with a fifth she would be a worthless woman (bandhakī). How canst thou, a wise man, who hast learned this law, now go beyond it and ask me for offspring ? ” Then came Pāṇḍu’s second wife, Mādrī, and said to him : “ I am not sorrowed that thou art not a proper man, nor that I am ever set behind her that is worthy of thy favour (Kuntī). But this is my great sorrow, that I, though we are equal (both thy wives) have no son.”