Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.88

v1.c6.88

The bringing in of this son of an unmarried girl, who never lived in the family of its mother’s husband, does not seem after all to have been in such a very near correspondence with the laws of the levirate, although as a Brahman he must have been moreover especially well fitted for his part. For King Çiçupāla makes the reproach to Bhīshma : “ Why didst thou, an it please thee, steal the maiden named Ambā, that loved another, and knew the law ? In that thy brother Vicitravīrya would not have this maiden that had been robbed by thee, he walked the way of the good. And with his two wives children have been begotten by another, through a proceeding which good men do not follow, and thou, smug in thy wisdom, dost calmly look on.” He then goes on to suggest that this love service should have fallen to Bhīshma’s lot. These words, it is true, are found in the bitter speech, so heartening and refreshing in itself, against the worthless and profligate upstart Kṛishṇa, and Bhīshma, who has sung such burning praises of Kṛishṇa, has to come in for his share here. There may be, however, a finger-post to be read by us here (ii, 41.24 ff.).¹ Moreover