Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.136

v2.c11.136

Not less so did the great sacrificial gatherings also offer opportunity enough for women’s drinking. Thus we find at the end of the description of the horse-sacrifice made by Yudhishṭhira (xiv, 89.39 ff.) : “So was the sacrifice of the wise king of justice and truth a flood of many foods and precious stones, a sea of spirit-drink and spiced liqueur (maireya). At it were ponds whose mud was made of molten butter, mountains of foods, rivers whose mud was of curdled milk with sugar and spices. Folk saw no end there to the cakes and sweetmeats ¹ that were made and eaten, nor to the beasts slaughtered. Pleasant it was there with the sounds of drums and shell-trumpets, with all the drunken, noisy, happy folk, and the crowd of right merry young women.” ² But at ordinary times, too, fair ladies were much given to heady drink, as it is to be gathered from various passages; and in the description of Rāvaṇa’s flock of women (Rām., v, 9; 10.30 ff.; 11.2 ff.; 18.10 ff.), reference is often made to their love of drinking. Even Sītā, that pattern of Indian womanhood, is no exception here, although naturally she keeps away from a pleasure such as this in her captivity and separation from her husband. But when she is again united with Rāma, she makes up for it. “When the son of Raghu had come into the thick aśoka-grove, he sat himself down on a seat splendid to behold, decked with many flowers and strewn with kuça-grass, and he took Sītā by the hand and gave her pure, sweet heady drink to quaff, as Indra did to Çacī. The tenderest meat and various fruits were quickly brought by the servants for Rāma to eat; and before the king, bands of Apsarases and snake-fays, well versed in dancing and singing, surrounded by Kinnarīs, did dance; and skilled women with the gift of beauty, under the spell of heady drink, and trained in dance and song, danced before Kākutstha. These heart-gladdening women did Rāma ever fill with gladness, he the best of gladdeners, he with the virtuous soul, he filled them with gladness, them the preciously adorned. Sitting with Sītā, he shone with sublime splendour, like Vasisṭha sitting with Arundhatī. Thus did Rāma, attended with joy, delight Sītā day after day like a god, Sītā like unto a daughter of the gods, the princess of Videha" (Rām., vii, 42.17 ff.). It seems, then, quite natural that she who had been carried off by the monster should speak scornfully to him: "There is the same difference between Rāma and Rāvaṇa as between the lion and the jackal, between a brooklet and the great sea, between sour rice-gruel (sauvīraka and choice spirits" (Rām., iii, 47.45). And so, too, she throws at him in Mahābh., iii, 278.39, 40: "How could a cow-elephant after having come to a rutting, noble, forest-roving giant bull-elephant, touch a pig? How could a woman that has drunk mādhvīka and madhumādhavī feel any longing after sour rice-gruel?"¹ The lovely drunken woman is often used in comparisons also, for instance, in vi, 75.34: "So did thine army, ravaged by Bhīma and Arjuna, reel hither and thither, like a drunken woman" (cp. vi, 77.61; vi, 100.19; ix, 9.37; xii, 164.63).²