Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.20

v2.c11.20

² The favourite festival of Indra or Indra’s banner is often mentioned in the Epic. A very good description is given in a Jain tale which I have translated in my *Hindu Tales* (pp. 142-3); and MBh., i, 63.17 ff. describes how King Uparicara founded this joyous festival and first held it. The standard was set up seven days before the full moon of the month Āçvina (Sept.–Oct.), waved day after day in all its glory and then on that day of the full moon was thrown down on the ground. Before this it had been held up by cords. K, i, 64, has interesting details, wanting in B. Because of its beautiful colours and richness and its sudden fall to earth it is in constant use as a comparison in the Epic. See i, 163.18, 19; 70.14; 173.1, 2; ii, 77.9; v, 59.15; vi, 119.91; vii, 15.29; 49.12; 87.6; 92.66; 94.69, 70; ix, 17.53; Rām., iii, 34.3; iv, 16.36, 37, 39; 17.2; iv, 34.3; vi, 45.17. By MBh., i, 63.20, I am brought back to my suggestion in *Hindu Tales*, p. 143, n. 3, that doya denotes a wooden utensil, perhaps in particular a wooden box or basket (piṭaka). On the raising and lowering of the Indradhvaja see also Yājñav., i, 147; Agnipur., 121.65 f.; but above all Bṛhatsaṃhitā, chap. 43, and Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, 385 f. (note). Yantra in MBh., vii, 94.70, however, does not mean “lever”. The meaning of piṭaka is not made clear by Bṛhats., 43.8, 41, 50, 57, 61, 64, 41-50. The Karm festival among the Urau is probably akin. *Zeitschr. f. Ethnol.*, Bd. 6, p. 346 (after Dalton). Both, anyhow, are fertility festivals, are the well-known May-tree festivals (with them cp. Tod, *Rājasthan*, ii, 217). See also Wright, *Hist. of Nepal*, pp. 38, 41.