Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.11

v1.c7.11

How Rāma in a case where his duty towards his father comes into conflict with that towards his mother bears himself as the pattern hero of the Rāmāyaṇa, almost always faithfully Brahmanic, we have already seen. Another example is that Paraçurāma, destroyer of the Kshattriyas, who is so highly glorified by the priestly caste, but who in reality is most repugnant. In the Mahābh. also is related shortly his resolute act towards his mother (iii, 116). Jamadagni, the holy son of that Ricika already mentioned, followed his father's example and wedded a royal princess named Reṇukā. She bore him five sons, of whom the youngest was Rāma with the axe. One day, the sons being away to get fruit, the pious mother went to bathe. There she saw King Citraratha wreathed in lotuses playing in the water with his wives, and her heart was gripped by a longing for him. As a result of this unfaithfulness of hers she came back from the water to the hermitary all wet, with troubled mind, and filled with fear.² The penitent saw she had lost her determination, and had been robbed of her holy splendour, that she had sinned, and one after the other he bade his four