Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.138

v2.c11.138

² So, too, the religious festivals (melā) in our days are merry fairs; and at sacrificial festivals, even the death-meals (śrāddha), there are wild goings on; and so on. S. Devendra Das, Sketches of Hindoo Life, 70 ff.; 122 ff. Bose, The Hindoos As They Are, 258 ff. It is not without reason that the law writings ordain that the guests (Brahmans) at the śrāddhas shall eat in silence. So Manu, iii, 236; Yājñavalkya, i, 238; Viṣṇu, lxxxi, 11, 20; Saurapurāṇa, xix, 28. And the old Greek hecatombs are “really nothing but a great popular festival to which a fair is added”. E. Meyer, loc. cit., p. 105. So, too, to the banquets to Brahmans given by women it is especially women that come, and they give themselves a good time, and even get drunk (i, 147.5 ff.).