Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c12.14

v2.c12.14

on earth. For the dutiful one knows when I am wearied and racked by hunger—filled with heartfelt affection, ever attached to me by love, and tender is my glorious one. He for whom a beloved wife lives, he has a home there, even if it be only on the root of a tree; even a palace without her is a wilderness, that I am convinced of. Whether it be the time for fulfilling a pious duty, or for acquiring worldly goods, or for love, man’s comrade is his wife; and if he must go abroad, then she bestows solace and trust on him. For the wife is called here on earth the highest gift of happiness,¹ the mate of the mateless on life’s way.² Even so for the man laid low by sickness and ever suffering, for the afflicted one, there is no healing like his wife. There is no kinsman like the wife, no comrade in the world like the wife, where it is sought to win pious merit. He that in his house has no good and sweet-speaking wife, let him but go into the lonely forest; his house is as the lonely forest” (xii, 144.3 ff.).³ In harmony with ideals such as these, even tender daughters of kings, like Draupadī and Damayantī, used to the most delicate luxury, go into wretchedness along with their husbands who have come to grief through their own fault; and the queen herself faithfully follows her lord, who has been changed into a man-eating monster, on his wanderings through forest and wilderness (i, 182.6 ff.).