Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.98

v1.c8.98

¹ The same Urvaçī is seen by Varuṇa, the prince of the waters, playing with her girl-friends, who is fired by her, and seeks to lie with her. She tells him that her love, indeed, is his, but her body is Mitra’s. But his fire now is too hot, and with her glad consent he discharges the seed into a pitcher, and in this the fruit is formed (Rām., vii, 56.12 ff.). Varuṇa, it is true, is no saint, and his rape of Utathya’s wife will be described later on. Cp. further Hartland, *Prim. Patern.*, i, 12, 23, 151 (fertilization by drinking semen). According to K, i, 150, the king of Pañcāla lived a life of sternest penance in the forest that he might get a son. There one day he saw the Apsaras Menakā in the blooming açoka-forest. His seed fell onto the ground, and filled with shame, he trod on it with his feet. From his seed arose King Drupada, the father of Draupadī. Such tales are found already in Vedic times, as the origin of Agastya and Vasiṣṭha shows. Cp. Sieg, *Sagenstoffe d. Rigveda*, p. 105 ff.