Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.34

v2.c11.34

therefore, my friend, do not give thine heart up at all to sorrow. But there is a remedy for it that has been already laid down by the lofty-minded gods; if thou art willing to make use of it, thou shalt receive Pramadvarā again here on earth.' Ruru spoke: 'What is the remedy laid down by the gods? Speak according to the truth, O wanderer through the air! I will do in accordance with it so soon as I have heard. O do thou save me!' The messenger of the gods spoke: 'Make over, O child of Bhrigu, the half of thy life to the maiden. Thus, O Ruru, will thy wife Pramadvarā rise up again.' Ruru spoke: 'I will make over half my life to the maiden, O best of the air-rangers. Dight with love and beauty,¹ my beloved shall rise again.' Then the king of the Gandharvas and the messenger of the gods,² the two excellent ones, went to the king of righteousness and death and to him spoke these words: 'O king of righteousness, let his wife that is dead arise once again for the half of Ruru'slife, if so thou deemest.'³ The king of righteousness spoke: 'If thou art asking for Pramadvarā, Ruru's wife, O messenger of the gods, then shall she, endowed with the half of Ruru's life, arise again.' So soon as he had thus spoken, the maid Pramadvarā by virtue of the half of Ruru's life arose again, as though she of the lovely face had only slept. For it was this that was written in the future for this Ruru, endowed with surpassing splendour, that from him the half of his life should be cut off on behalf of his wife, when he should be far gone in years.⁴ Then did the parents on the wished for day hold with glad hearts the wedding of the two, and the two lovers took their joy, each wishing all that was best for the other." But thenceforward Ruru was a bitter foe of snakes, as is told in what follows, and to this hatred he also owes his immortalizing in the Mahābhārata.⁵