Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.158

v2.c11.158

All-powerful is love. “If the god of love draws nigh a man, there is no gainsaying him, although he has no body ” (v, 39.45, 46). Kāma is one form of Agni, an all-penetrating, devouring fire, kāma the unspeakably great and lovely. “He that in form has not his like in the heaven of the gods, the god of fire, has been named Kāma by the gods for his peerlessness ” (iii, 219.23).² Therefore, too, the man in love is not responsible; he is in the hands of a higher power. So Bhīma reminds Hiḍimba: "This young woman has no hold over herself; she now loves me. She is driven by the god of love, and it is on him the blame falls" (i, 153.25 ff.). As by sleep (x, 4.22), so is shame taken away by love (v, 35.50; 37.8). Rām., iv, 33.54-57 paints in the same way the all-conqueror, love. The lover knows no law, no virtue (dharma), and he must be shunned (v, 33.101 ff.). He that leaves kāma behind himself, reaches to profit (iii, 313.78). It is in tender love (sneha) that sorrows have their root,¹ from it comes all anguish; joy and sorrow and suffering—all springs from it. Just as a fire in the hollow of a tree burns up the prince of the forest, roots and all, so does even the lightest passion destroy what is good and useful. Overwhelmed by passion, man is dragged about by kāma. The wise man shuns a tender inclination, whether it be for friends, for worldly good, or for a woman (iii, 2.27 ff.). Indeed, Kāma (lust, love) is the ally of Mṛtyu, the goddess of death (xii 258.35 ff.). Apart from the destruction it otherwise brings, it is also saṃsārahetu, the cause of the continuance of this world of pain and death (iii, 313.98). Between such ascetic doctrines, that are so often found in India, and the glorification of love as the one and only thing, there is also in the Epic the wise teaching: Enjoy love with discretion (e.g. xii, 140.26). It is often insisted, especially for the king, that not the morning, but only the evening must be given up to women and love (so, ii, 5.69). It was indeed among the Old Indian rulers that there were very many, as already hinted, whose divinity was the vulva (bhagadeva, xiv, 43.15). Rules for love and wedlock from the standpoint of long life are set forth fairly numerously. "Let a man not go during the day to copulate, nor to a maiden, nor to a bad woman, nor to an unbathed (still menstruating) woman; thus shall a man have long life" (xiii, 104.108; cp. 150.151). "Let not a man draw nigh unto women that may be visited, nor unto the wife of a king, nor unto his woman friends (or: not to woman friends); not unto the wives of physicians, youths, and old men, of servants, kinsmen, Brahmans, seekers of protection, kinsmen by marriage; thus shall a man have long life" (xiii, 104.116 ff.). It brings well-being to wed a grown (vayaḥsthā) girl, born in a noble family, held in praise, favoured with the bodily marks of happiness (xiii, 104.123, 124, 135). Then (131 ff.) a whole set of women are named that a man must avoid, as in the law books; and, further, it is taught that a man must protect women, indeed, but must never harbour jealousy for their sake, since this shortens life, as does lying with another man's wife. Cp. the already discussed passage in i, 64.5 ff., and especially the chapter on the surata.