Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.74

v1.c8.74

codes of law with very little harm, but according to others very badly. The glance of the woman who has had to do with a man from a caste below her, like the Çūdra man, makes unclean. Āpast., i, 3, 9.11-12. Āpast., ii, 10, 27.10, condemns the woman who commits adultery with a Çūdra man to fasting and mortification only. Vasisṭha, xxi, 1-5 ordains as follows: The Brahman woman who had to do with a Çūdra, a Vaiçya, or a Kshattriya man has her head shaven, her body smeared over with butter, and is led naked along the street on an ass, which is black where the intercourse was with a Çūdra man, yellow for a Vaiçya man, white for a Kshattriya man; thus she is cleansed again. 13 prescribes, according to the caste of the fellow-offender, various mortifications (cp. 20) for the adulteress who lets herself be embraced by a man under her rank. It seems therefore to be a question whether the sinning woman has done more evil or less, as Bühler holds (cp. e.g. Manu, xi, 177, 178). So also Baudh., ii, 3.49 ff. But according to Vas., xxi, 12 a woman of the three higher castes who has received a Çūdra man can be rid of her guilt by making an atonement, only if she has not got with child thereby; and in any case, if she sinks still lower, then she must be cast out (10). If a woman does wrong with a man below her caste, she has to suffer, according to Yājñav., ii, 286, the cutting off of her ears, and suchlike punishment (= Agnipur., 258.69b). Yājñav., iii, 298 declares: The principal offences of a woman leading to loss of caste are: intercourse with the low (nīca), abortion, and murder of her husband. So essentially Gautama, xxi, 9. Parāçara, x, 16-19, as already mentioned, lets her that has been ravished by a Pariah be cleansed by the penance in the well, and rites of purification and mortification, and then by her monthly course. The same punishment as in the MBh. falls on the woman committing the crime of having connection with a man of a lower caste (nihīnavarṇagamana) according also to Gaut., xxiii, 14. According to Manu, viii, 371 f. the haughty (jñāti-striguṇadarpitā) adulteress and her fellow are to have their reward in the way given in the Epic. For this purpose there are specially trained dogs (Manu, viii, 371; Agnipur., 227.42). So too Bṛhaspati, xxiii, 15, prescribes this death (or mutilation) for the bold woman who herself comes into the man’s house, and seduces him; the man thus surprised naturally comes off more lightly. The inveterate adulteress is in general put to death (Vishṇu, v, 18); and Yājñav., ii, 279 f. ordains: A wholly bad woman, such a one as has killed a man or destroyed a dam is to be drowned with stones round her neck, unless she be with child. Of a woman that makes poison, of one that is an incendiary, or of one who slays husband, guru, or child, the ears, nose, lips and hands shall be cut off, and she be put to death by bulls. But A man shall not even look on a stranger naked woman (xii, 193.17).¹ The evil-doer who looks with sinful eyes on a naked woman is born again as a weakling (xiii, 145.51; 162.47); and he that looks on his neighbour's wife with impure eyes comes into the world blind at birth for his wickedness (çl. 50). Involuntary shedding of seed must also be atoned for,² husband and wife are reminded not to bring one another before the court of justice (Nārada, xii, 89). It is for the husband in the first place to punish the adulteress. Of this more will be said later. Of course the Epic, the law writings and the Purāṇas threaten the Çūdra especially, who embraces a Brahman woman, with the most awful Saṃsāra punishment; and according to MBh., xii, 165.35, 36 if a man not a Brahman and a Brahman woman have relations with one another, loss of caste follows, as also with agamyāgamana. Cp. Meyer, Kauṭilya, 263.31 ff.