[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.c8.77 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.77 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.77 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c8.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.77) The treatment, given in the text, following xii, 165, of the woman who defiles herself with a man below her rank has particularly roused horror in Professor Hopkins. We may here be reminded of our own forefathers, who were after all very well-inclined to women. "No free maiden could marry a man of the servile class without suffering servitude or capital punishment. . . . The Burgundian law provided that both the free maiden and the slave be slain. . . . Among the Goths, if a free woman married her own servant they were both to be flogged in public and burned at the stake" (Rullkoetter, \*The Legal Protection of Woman Among the Ancient Germans\*, Chicago, 1900, pp. 58, 59). Among certain South Sea islanders the nobleman marrying a girl from the people was punished by death (Westermarck, 370 f. after Waitz-Gerland). \*Noblesse oblige\*: the heavy punishment falls on him who is high, for he must show himself worthy of the honour he gets, and avoid any debasing of himself. Among the Old Indians it is never marriage but adultery with such a man that is the object of these threats. - [Previous: v1.c8.76](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.76) - [Next: v1.c8.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.78) - [Up: v1.c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8) ## Linked texts (1) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.165) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v1.c8.77) · Pramāṇa