Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c12.43

v2.c12.43

Like many another god, so this god of the wife was particularly great at asking. Above all the holy men in this also showed their very famous—holiness. Jaratkāru, who sees his forbears hanging in the cave, resolves therefore to get married to save them, and at length in spite of his strange demands finds a wife, the snake fay Jaratkāru, in fact, Vāsuki’s sister, and lives after the wedding in his brother-in-law’s palace amid great splendour and magnificence. “ There the best one made this covenant with his wife : ‘ Thou must never do or utter anything that is unpleasing to me. If anything unpleasing happened to me, then I should sever myself from thee and no longer dwell in thy house. Take what I have spoken unto thine heart.’ Then did the much afeared sister of the prince of snakes speak unto him these words in exceeding great sorrow : ‘ Thus shall it be.’ And strictly thus (as was agreed) did she wait on her husband in ways that are as rare as white crows, for the glorious one yearned to offer him what was pleasing.