Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c9.6

v1.c9.6

as they are by the earthly abhisārikā. Although according to xiii, 104.84 no red wreaths are to be worn, but only white ones, yet red flowers may be worn on the head. But kamala and kuvalaya are to be altogether avoided. Vishṇu, lxxi, 11-12 is very strong that no red wreaths but water-flowers are to be worn. Cp. Gobhila, Gṛihyas., iii, 5.15. As, indeed, white is in general the lucky colour, and red often the colour of ill-hap, of evil magic, and of death, white wreaths are among the lucky things, red among those foreboding evil. In the main, white flowers are also to be offered to the gods, red ones and black to the spirits (bhūta), and red-flowered plants with prickles serve to bewitch foes. To the Yakshas, Gandharvas, and Nāgas let water-flowers be offered. That Kāma, however, the god of love, was worshipped with red aṣoka-flowers is shown, for instance, by Gauḍavaho, 754. It is natural that Çiva, the god of the souls of the dead, and of procreation, should wear red wreaths (xii, 284.147). Cp., too, Billington, p. 222 f. Flowers that have grown on a graveyard or in sanctuaries of the gods must not be brought along to the wedding or to the pleasures of love (rahas). See Rām., v, 27; ii, 25.28; MBh., xiii, 98.28 ff.; and cp. also Zachariae, Zeitschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk., Bd. 14, p. 303 f., 397, note 3; Lewy, Zeitschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk., Bd. 3, p. 136 f.; then Dubois-Beauchamp ³, p. 645 (red flowers for the bhūta); ibid., 388 (red flowers offered at magic rites); Thurston, Omens and Superstitions, etc., pp. 42, 47, 48 (white flowers lucky, red unlucky). Red turbans and red garments are to be worn by the priests at the sacrifice that is offered up as magic against foes. Baudh., i, 6, 13.9. Cp. ii, 8, 15.5. Here no less belongs the following solemn magical rite: He who in disputes fixes the boundary wears red garb and on his head red wreaths (and earth). Yājñav., ii, 152; Nārada, xi, 10; Bṛihaspati, xix, 11; Manu, viii, 256. Rules as to which flowers are to be offered the gods and the forefathers, and which not are given also in Vishṇusmṛiti, lxvi, 5-9. Cp. Agnipur., ccii, 1 ff. and cclxviii, as also Mahānirvāṇat., v, 147 ff. In the third passage it is, however, at the same time taught that best as offerings are the fifteen spiritual flowers.