Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.16.1

v1.c8.16.1

The, in parts very clumsy, legend of Pāṇḍu seems to be an imitation of this last one. The king shot at a couple of antelopes that were just in the joys of pairing.² But it was really a young Ṛishi, who had thus transformed himself and his wife, and was then love-making with her. With a human voice spoke he that had been brought to the ground: “Even they that are seized by hot desire and rage, they that are robbed of understanding, even men that take their delight in evil shun gruesome deeds. Born thou wast in the glorious race of men whose soul lived ever in virtue; how then couldst thou, overcome by desire and greed, so go astray in thy mind?” Pāṇḍu insisted he had every right to slay the beasts of the forest.³ But the male antelope said: “It is not for my own sake that I upbraid thee for killing the antelopes. But thou shouldst out of friendly thoughtfulness have taken heed that I was just pairing. For what man of sense could bring himself at such a time dear to all beings, longed after by all beings, to slay in the forest an antelope when in the act of pairing? For thee, born of the race of the Pauravas, unwearied in the doing of noble deeds, this deed is not seemly, which is cruel, unheard of, one that all men will condemn, which leads not to heaven, but to shame, and is called accursed.