Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.5

v2.c11.5

“ He that up in the sky fills the air with brightness by his disk, the sun god, had a daughter by name Tapatī of equal rank with himself, the younger sister of Sāvatrī, renowned in the three worlds, beaming, glowing. No goddess, no Asura woman, no Yaksha or Rākshasa woman, no Apsaras, no Gandharva maid was so fair. Of the right measure and proportions, and faultless were the limbs of the peerless one, deep-black and big her eyes, good were her ways and her heart, fair to the eye her raiment. There was none here in the three worlds that the awaker of life deemed worthy as a husband for her, in beauty, character, gifts, and renown. When now she had reached the bloom of youth,² and he saw that he must marry this daughter away, he could find no rest through anxious thought of how to bestow her. Now at that time the son of Riksha, he the strong bull of the Kurus, King Saṃvaraṇa, sought to win the graces of the sun god. Filled with loving devotion, he worshipped the rising wealth of beams with guest-gifts (arghya), wreaths and offerings, and so forth, and with sweet perfumes, his mind well held in check, pure, with vows and fasting and manifold penances, obedient, free from the pride