Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.41

v1.c8.41

¹ The same prohibition is in the law books. According to Mārk.-Pur., xiv, 74, 76 he that copulates by day is badly tortured in hell. So in other Purāṇas. Furthermore in the morning and at twilight continence must be observed. Mārk.-Pur., xxxiv, 82.73 ; Viṣṇusmṛti, lxix, 10. And in a vehicle must Venus not be sacrificed to (e.g. Manu, xi, 175 ; Viṣṇu, liii, 4 ; Agnipur., 169.37 (= Manu, 175, cp. Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, 237)). Thus then the conduct of the loving couples in Flaubert's *Madame Bovary* and Maupassant's *Bel-Ami* and doubtless elsewhere, who quench their desires in the hired coach, is doubly wicked. Speaking, too, during the "work of darkness" is banned (Agnipur., 166.17a-18a), naturally, as with the other dispositions there given, so as not to arouse evil influences. A shorter compilation of rules for sexual intercourse with the wife is to be found in Manu, iii, 45 (cp. Bühler's parallels), and a good one, somewhat more in detail, in Viṣṇu, lxix ; particularly excellent is Carakasamhitā, iv, 8, and good, too, is Garuḍapur., Pretakalpa, xxxii, 7-19 ; Bṛhatsamh., 78.11 ff. ; etc. Much that is beautiful is given us, for instance, in Viṣṇupurāṇa, iii, 11.110 ff., a passage which may here be given as an example of such similar precepts often to be found in the law books and other writings: "At the time of the ṛitu do thou, O lord of the earth, approach thy wife, happy, under a constellation bearing a masculine name, at a propitious time, during the best even-numbered nights. But go not to the unbathed woman, to the sick one, to the menstruating one, not to her without desire, not to the angry one, not to one in ill-repute, not to one with child, not to one uncomplaisant, not to her that longs for another man or is without love (or: that is unwilling), not to another man's wife, not to one that is faint with hunger, not to one that has overeaten. Nor do thou thyself be weighed down with such qualities as these. Bathed, wearing a wreath and scented, bursting with strength (sphīta), not wearied or hungry, filled with love and tender inclination, let the man go to sexual union. The fourteenth and the eighth day of the half-month, the day of the new moon, as also the day of the full moon and also the