Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c12.53

v2.c12.53

The king's daughter, Sukanyā had aroused the anger of the old and ugly penitent Cyavana, and was given him to wife that he might forget his deadly wrath. The two Açvins saw her bathing unclad (kṛtābhiṣekāṃ vivṛtāṃ), like a daughter of the ruler of the gods, and told her how foolish she was to waste her wonderful beauty and her blooming youth beside her withered old husband, who could not protect or support her either ; she must choose one of them for a husband. But she spoke : “ I am content with my husband Cyavana ; do not, I beg you, believe such evil of me.” Then these two physicians of the gods offered to make the old man a handsome youth ; then she should pick out one of the three for herself. All three dived into a pond, and came up in a moment exactly alike in youth, beauty, and form. Each one shouted : “ Choose me !” But she with her mind and her heart still found her husband out, and chose him (iii, 123).¹ Cp. iv, 21.10–14.