Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c12.42

v2.c12.42

¹ So, too, MBh., xii, 148.6, 7. Cp. e.g. iii, 234.3. A woman in Bhoja’s capital was holding her sleeping husband on her lap, and her small child crawled into the fire. So as not to awake her lord, she sat still, but besought Agni for the sake of her faithfulness to her husband not to burn the child. It was done as she begged. When the man woke up, she quickly took out the child, who was sitting smiling in the flames (Bhojaprab., ed. Vidyasagara, p. 90). The woman left by her husband has fallen from the world of holiness and of salvation (puṇyasthāna), and cannot come into heaven (iii, 230.3, 5).