Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.16.2

v1.c8.16.2

Thou, who understandest well the particularities and excellences of the enjoyment of women, and knowest the books of the doctrine, and the nature of religious duty and human well-being, shouldst not have done a thing which thus brings about the loss of heaven. I am a Muni purified through asceticism, my name is Kindama. It was because I felt ashamed and shy before men that I did pair with the she-antelope. Turned into an antelope, I roam about with antelopes in the depths of the forest. But as thou didst not know that, for thee it will not be as the murder of a Brahman that thou hast thus slain me, who was wearing an antelope’s shape, and was mazed with love. Yet, O blinded one, thou shalt have this requital: when thou, bewildered with love, art in the embraces of thy wedded wife, thou wilt in this very state go into the world of the dead. The loved one whom thou art embracing at the time of thy death will, however, out of loving devotion, follow thee, O best of the prudent, when thou hast reached the city of the dead, into which all beings come but unwillingly.” When these words had died away life left the antelope, and Pāṇḍu at once was gripped with sorrow (i, 118). From that time on he lived in strict continence as a forest penitent, together with his two wives, and he had his five sons through the gods. “One day the king with his wives was wandering through the forest in spring-time, when the forest blooms and living beings are all mazed.