Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.18

Language: English

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The minister who was seeking for the king, the best of princes, with an army, then¹ along with his following saw him fallen to the ground in the great forest, like the raised banner of Indra.² When the king’s comrade saw the great bowman lying thus on the ground like an outcast, he was kindled as though with a fire, and he hurried towards him, seized by a tumult of distress owing to his tender affection, and put the prince, overcome with love, the lord of earthly rulers, on his feet, like a father his son that has fallen. When the minister, who was old in understanding, years of life, renown, and state wisdom, had set him up, the feverish pain left him. And he spoke to him that was raised with loving, sweet words : ‘ Fear not, O tiger of men; hail to thee, thou good man !’ He believed that the prince, exhausted from hunger and thirst, he the destruction of the foe in the fight, had fallen to the ground. With very cool, lotus-scented water he sprinkled the king’s head, tearing off his diadem.¹ Thereupon the life-spirits came back to the herdsman of men, and the mighty one dismissed his army, except this one counsellor. Then at the king’s command the great army withdrew; the king sat himself down again on that plateau. Then in those lordly mountains he stood there on earth, having acquired ritual purity, his hands folded before his forehead, and his face lifted upwards, to bring the sun god’s favour on himself.

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And in his mind, Saṃvaraṇa, the king, fled to Vasiṣṭha, best of the Ṛiṣis, his foe-destroying house-priest.² As now the herdsman of men was standing at one spot day and night, the Brahmanic Ṛiṣi came to him on the twelfth day. Since the great seer with the pure soul already knew that the commander of men had been carried away by Tapaī, and had come to know this in super-mundane wise, the best of the Munis, he filled with virtue, addressed the prince that was thus fast harnessed and bridled in his thoughts, in his yearning to carry out his business. Before the eyes of the ruler of men the sublime Ṛiṣi was wafted up towards heaven, he that was gifted with the sun’s brightness, to pay his court to the sun god. Then the Brahman, laying his folded hands on his forehead, came before the thousand-beamed one, and announced himself, filled with joyful love, saying: ‘I am Vasiṣṭha.’ To the best of Munis said the light-spreader: ‘Great Ṛiṣi, welcome to thee! Speak thy wish. Whatever thou wishest from me, this thy desire, I will grant thee, even though it were hard to carry out.’ Thus addressed by him, the seer Vasisṭha answered the light-spreader, the abounding in beams, falling down, he the mighty one in penance, before him: ‘It is thy daughter, Tapatī by name, the younger sister of Sāvitrī, that I woo from thee for Saṃvaraṇa, O thou filled with brightness. For this king has high renown, knows the religious and the worldly duties, and has a noble mind;

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Saṃvaraṇa is a fitting husband for thy daughter, O wanderer through the air.’ Thus bespoken by him, the maker of day resolved: ‘I will give her,’ and answered the Brahman with joyful consent: ‘Saṃvaraṇa is first among princes, and thou, O Muni, art first among Rishis, Tapatī is above all women. What else could there be, then, but to make grant of her!’ Thereupon the shining one himself handed over the shining one (Tapatī), her without fault in any limb, to the high-souled Vasisṭha for Saṃvaraṇa. Then did the great Rishi take over the maid Tapatī, and, dismissed (by the sun god), Vasisṭha now came back again to where that Kuru bull known to fame, the king filled with love’s unrest, was waiting, and in mind was by her side only. And when he saw the maiden of the gods, the sweet-laughing Tapatī coming to him with Vasisṭha, he was lit up with overflowing joy. She of the lovely brows shone exceeding bright as she was wafted down from the sky, lighting up the quarters of the world with flashes like a falling flash of lightning. When scarcely twelve days had gone by, Vasisṭha, the august Rishi with the pure soul, came to the king.¹ After Saṃvaraṇa had brought the god that grants wishes, the prince of the beams, the lord, to be favourable to him, he won his wife only through the majesty of Vasisṭha. Then did the bull among men take hold of the hand of Tapatī in lawful wise on that prince of mountains, the resort of gods and Gandharvas.

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With Vasisṭha’s leave the kingly Rishi was minded to take his pleasure with his wife on this same mountain. Then the herdsmen of the earth left that minister (as his representative) in the city and the kingdom, in the forests and the groves.