[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v1.c7.78.2 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.78.2 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.78.2 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c7.78.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c7.78.2) On the other hand in accord with a true Indian view we are told as follows in Bhāgavatapur., vi, 9.9: For the boon of constant enjoyment of love (or: to be allowed to live after their own desires? caçvatkāmavareṇa) women took on themselves a quarter of the sin; this is seen in them month after month in the form of the menstrual blood. But the woman in this wise is fully rid of the sins she has herself done, particularly those of sex, as has been already established from the MBh. (p. 219). With this the law literature and the Purāṇa literature is in agreement. The monthly flow cleanses her from married unfaithfulness (vyabhicāra), Yājñav., i, 72; Agnipur., clxv, 6 f. (where we must read na tyajed); 19 ff.; from pollution in thought, Manu, v, 108; Viṣṇu, xxii, 91; cp. Parāçara, vii, 2; x, 12. Baudhāyana, ii, 2, 4.4 teaches that women have an incomparable means of cleansing, they are never wholly stained; for month after month their sin is carried away. Exactly the same in Vasisṭha, xxviii, 4, and essentially the same in v, 4; iii, 58. Hence, then, comes the ordinance in Parāçara, x, 16-19: The woman who does wrong with a Caṇḍāla (pariah) must confess her guilt before a gathering of ten Brahmans, then fast a day and night plunged up to the neck in a well with cow-dung, water, and mud, then shave her head quite bald, and live outside the house practising further mortifications and cleansing acts, up to the time of her period; - [Previous: v1.c7.78.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c7.78.1) - [Next: v1.c7.78.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c7.78.3) - [Up: v1.c7.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c7.78) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c7.78.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c7.78.2) · Pramāṇa