Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.79

v1.c8.79

It is in the light, then, of the passages given on the importance of offspring that the ordinance in xii, 35.27 must be understood, which seems to be at variance with the commandments of chastity: “If a man is begged for it (bhikshite) as for a pious alms, lying with the wife of another does not put a stain on law and virtue.” The commentator says: If a man is begged by a woman for the dharma’s sake: “Pour in the seed!” And as this half verse stands in a didactic discourse highly tinged with Brahman views, Nil. is undoubtedly right, and we hardly need have in thought a generous chivalry on the man’s, namely the warrior’s, side, such as comes into the myth of Çarmiṣṭhā and Yayāti.¹