Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.41

v2.c11.41

The five Pāṇḍavas had escaped with their mother out of the burning house of resin, and were wandering through the forest. Bhīma the strong had at last carried all the wearied ones away, and was now watching over them as they lay asleep. Then a man-eating monster (Rākshasa), dwelling near by, Hiḍimba by name, climbed a çāla-tree, and looked about him for prey. Black he was as the rain-cloud, red-eyed, with bristling tusks and hanging belly, red stubbly beard and hair, out-standing ears, and a neck and trunk like some mighty tree; huge were his jaws, every feature was hideous and frightful. He scratched his shaggy hair, opened his jaws in a gaping yawn, and kept on looking all round, tormented by hunger and thirst. When he smelt human flesh he was greatly rejoiced, and called to his sister Hiḍimbā: “At last I have now found my much-loved food; my mouth is watering. Happiness is clasping me.¹ My eight sharp-tipped tusks, whose thrust none can withstand, I will at length bury in the bodies and the tender flesh. I will leap on to a human neck, tear the veins open and drink my fill of the warm, fresh, foaming blood. Go; find out who is lying there in the forest. The strong human smell seems to refresh my nose. Kill all these persons, and bring them to me