Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.133

v2.c11.133

Then there were all kinds of entertainments, where drinking and other merry-making played a great part. So the festival already mentioned in honour of the mountain Raivataka in Kṛṣṇa's kingdom. "And this mountain was adorned; it shone, covered with the most manifold, many-coloured treasures made of precious stones, with the most splendid gold wreaths, as also with flowers and garments and wishing-trees.¹ And always decked with golden branched lights, it blazed like the light of day, in its caves and waterfalls. It was as though it sang, when many-coloured banners bearing small bells, and men and women filled it everywhere with sounds. A sight of splendour beyond words did it offer, like Meru with its bands of Munis. The din from the drunken, merry, singing women and men rose even into the sky, confusedly filled with the merry shouting and screaming ² of the roaring, drunken men and women, crazed with delight. Thus did the mountain delight the heart with the sounds of joy, furnished, too, with chapmen's booths and markets, enticing the heart, abounding in all kinds of food and pleasure haunts, covered with a great array of cloths and wreaths, resounding with lutes, flutes, and drums. Great magnificence was given to the festival of the mighty mountain, by the unending bestowal on the poor, the blind, the needy, and so forth, of hard and soft foods, together with spiced liqueur (maireya) and spirits (surā)" (xiv, 59.5 ff.).