[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.c8.48 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.48 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.48 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c8.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.48) hell. “Men who give themselves up to promiscuous intercourse (prakīrṇamaithuna) have, as men of vice and spurners of order, a short life, go to hell, and invite their being reborn impotent” (xiii, 104.12; 145.53).¹ He that touches another’s wife is born as a wolf, as a dog, as a jackal, then born as a vulture, a snake, a heron, as also a crane (baka). The blinded villain who defiles his brother’s wife becomes for a year a kokila cock. He that to slake his lust lays hands on the wife of his friend (cf. xiii, 101.16), of his teacher (guru), or of the king, is born after death as a swine. He will be five years a swine, ten years a porcupine, five years a cat, ten years a cock, three months an ant, one month an insect (kīṭa), and then, having had these embodiments (saṃsāra, cp. iii, 183.70), will be born in a worm’s existence (kṛimiyoni). In this worm’s existence he will live fourteen months, and then, having atoned for his evil (adharma), be born again as a human being (xiii, 111.75 ff.). For five offences, indeed, there is no atonement (niṣkṛiti), through them a man becomes an outcast, unworthy of intercourse (asambhāṣhya) with forefathers, gods,² and pious men, goes to hell, is roasted there like a fish, and has to live there on matter and blood. These are: the murder of a Brahman, cow-slaying, intercourse with another’s wife, unbelief, and living on a woman (xiii, 130.37-40). In the same way Rām., iii, 38.30 teaches: “There is no greater sin than to touch another’s wife.” On the other hand xii, 35.25 prescribes, indeed, an atonement for him that seduces the wife of another; but it is noteworthy that it is the same vow of mortification that is also laid on the Brahman-murderer. The former, however, only need keep it for a year. “Then he is free of his sin.” This punishment falls on him “as a robber of another’s property” (paradārāpahārī tu parasyāpaharan vasu). The matter is in xiii, 129.1-4, looked at from the same, though sharper defined, standpoint: He that lies with another man’s wife has to bear the same guilt as he that takes property away from a Brahman, which is, indeed, an offence crying to heaven. He is equal to a Brahman-murderer (v, 35.46 ff.). But if the Brahman himself takes some woman who is not his wedded wife to his bed, then to atone for his guilt he must lie with his (bare) back on the grass (xii, 165.28), and so, and only in three years does he wipe out the sin of a night. The member of the priestly caste becomes apaṅkteya, loses his social position, if he is a pander or brothel-keeper (kuṇḍācin), has his wife's lover living in the house (that is probably, also makes profit from him), and if he visits the wife of another. On the other hand he is deemed to be a brahmacārin or continent man, if he at the time of the ṛtu always embraces his lawful wife (xiii, 9.7 ff., 28, 29; 89.7–9).¹ But also the noble view that sexual self-control is the holy and pure thing finds expression. In xii, 269.27 Kapila sets forth the rule: “Let the man delight no woman that is the wife of a hero,² nor let him call a woman when she is not in the ṛtu; let him keep in his person the pious vow of wedded faith (bhāryāvrata).³ Thus will the gate of his sexual parts be warded.”⁴ There is then the magnificent verse, xii, 210.37, wherein the body is called “the holy city with the nine gates” (navadvāram puraṃ puṇyam).⁵ Among the four gates that must be watched over is found the male member, both in xii, 269.23 ff., and in xii, 299.28; 335.4.¹ If the wife is unfaithful to the husband or the husband to the wife, then this is an evil state of things which forebodes universal and dreadful disaster (xvi, 2.11). Of course, he, too, is a wicked man who helps others to adultery: “He that seduces or touches another’s wife, or gets her for another, goes to hell” (xiii, 23.61).² - [Previous: v1.c8.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.47) - [Next: v1.c8.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.49) - [Up: v1.c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8) ## Linked texts (2) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.3.183) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.ramayana.valmiki.3.38) — Vālmīki, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.48) · Pramāṇa