Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c9.17

v1.c9.17

It was better than this youthful penitent, who was assuredly to be put to the test,¹ that the woman’s hero Kṛiṣhṇa knew how to appreciate such marks of hospitality as these. When he is sent by the Pāṇḍavas to the Kauravas, if possible to bring peace about, not only did Duryodhana have rest-houses with women and other needful comforts provided for him everywhere on his road thither, but Dhṛitarāṣhṭra also gives orders : “ My sons and grandsons, except Duryodhana, shall all drive to meet Janārdana in splendid chariots, and finely adorned. And the fair harlots shall go on foot, comely-decked, to meet the most high Keçava. And all lovely maidens, too, who wish to go forth from the city to behold Janārdana may go unhindered ” (v, 86.15, 16).² exhibition of woman's nakedness in the Middle Ages and later, see especially R. Günther, *Weib u. Sittlichkeit*, Berlin, 1898, pp. 141-163; and on the public exposure of the hetæræ in Greece and Rome, and other matters, see the same, p. 134 ff., Ploss-Bartels, i, 336-48.