Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.161

v2.c11.161

But love must be on both sides, and lead to the pleasures of sex; for love has, as its natural fruit, sexual pleasure (kāmoratiphalaḥ, xii, 123.6). "If a man and a woman that yearn for one another reach their goal, then that may be compared with Amṛtam; but if a lover cannot reach the goal of his wishes, then that is a misfortune which is the same as the poison-plant" (xii, 320.69, Deussen's transl.). "If a man love a woman who loves him not, then his body glows in torment; a man has then joy when he loves her who wishes for him" (Rām., v, 22.42-43). "Two kinds of human beings call forth trust from others (or: the highest trust): women that are loved and love, and folk that honour the honoured.¹ Two kinds of human beings are sharp thorns, destroying the body: he that is poor and yet loves, and he that is weak and yet is angry" (MBh., v, 33.55, 56). But he is loved who is near: "Love goes to him who is seen; there is no leaning towards him who is not seen" (Rām., v, 26.39), which is what we read as boys, in Cicero.² Cp. e.g. MBh., iii, 71.6. For the woman particularly this is true; for, like the creeper, she twines round the very nearest tree, the Indian says. Love does not at all go to the worthiest object: "We see a good woman in glorious beauty