Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.106

v2.c11.106

It is true the assertion is made of the barbarians (Yavanas, Pāradas, Çakas, and Bālhikas) that they are woman-mad (vii, 93.42); but the wail of the noble wife (i, 158), whose husband must go forth to the monster as the tribute-prey of the Rākshasa, is not only the fantasy born of her anguish. She shows him how men will fall upon her and their daughter in their blind greed, and mishandle them for their own ends, so soon as their protector is gone. They will not, in short, be left to stay on the path of virtue. “As the birds swoop down on a piece of flesh thrown on the ground, so do all swoop on a woman that lacks her husband” (çl. 12).² A woman, especially, in a menial position, was naturally in Old India always in danger, although, to all seeming, not the outlaw she is in Europe still to-day, or anyhow in German lands. As it naturally cannot be expected of princesses to understand anything else, but just to be princesses, Draupadī as well as Damayantī has to condescend in misfortune to take service as a chambermaid; for she already knows something of wreaths, perfumes, ornaments, and fine clothes. But she reminds Yudhishṭhira: “Chambermaids are unprotected in the world, they are slave-girls, O Bhārata” (iv, 4.15 ff.); and the future was to bring what she feared, as we have just seen. The man wants only to enjoy a woman, not to marry her, as, for instance, Rām., vii, 79–81: Daṇḍa, the stupid youngest son of King Ikshvāku, sees the young and lovely daughter of a holy man, and is fired with a passion for her. She warns him of the fatal anger of her father, and that he must ask for her as his wife; but he forthwith ravishes her. The holy man makes a seven days’ rain of ashes to fall on the place; so everything lies dead there, and this is the Daṇḍaka forest.³ “The man would not come to the taking home