[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c13.63 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.63 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.63 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c13.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c13.63) already there, even the trees, and all that came thither had to take on woman's sex. As soon as Ilā reached there, this divine spell worked itself on him also and his following. He was deeply troubled at this, and made his appeal to Çiva, who laughed him to scorn. The god's wife, however, showed herself more compassionate : through her grace Ilā was allowed always to be a woman for a month, and for a month a man, and in neither state did he remember the other. Ilā, so the new woman was called, now roved through that forest, free and merry, with her following, which was likewise feminine, and she came once to a glorious lake. In it Budha, the moon's son, was giving himself up to asceticism, but through the sight of the bewitchingly lovely wanderer of the wild he was so fired by love that he could no longer restrain himself ; he turned her attendants into Kimpurushī, and told them that as these they would find husbands ; while to Ilā, who thus saw herself robbed in the lonely forest of her following, he offered himself as a loving husband, and with this she was glad. With her he spent the whole of the spring moon in such delights that it flew by him like a moment. But when the month was at an end, Ilā awoke in the morning as a man again, and called to the son of Soma : “ I came into these mountain wilds with a great following. Where are my attendants, then ?” “ A rain of stones has killed them.” “ Then I who have lost my wives and people will no longer be king, either, but hand over the rule to my son.” But Budha prevailed on him to stay there for a year ; then he promised to do his best. To this the herdsmen of the earth agreed. “ For a month he was now a woman, and gave himself up to his pleasure without a break ; for a month he gave himself up as a man to pious ways and thoughts.” In the ninth month as Ilā he then bore Purūravas. By a horse-sacrifice Çiva was then put in a gracious frame of mind by Ila's kindred, and gave him back his manhood.¹ - [Previous: v2.c13.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c13.62) - [Next: v2.c13.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c13.64) - [Up: v2.c13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c13) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c13.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c13.63) · Pramāṇa