Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.72

v2.c13.72

² Reputable women according to this passage do not ride in Old India; for whatever goes with the army, riding on horse or ass (Çiçu-pālav., xii, 20; v, 7) is, anyhow in most cases, light goods. But probably the widow who is going to let herself be burnt with her dead husband often rides there on horseback. See Zachariae, *Zeitschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 14, p. 208, note 2; 209; 302; 305. She has come away from the ordinary laws. Or was the horse so often chosen by her as being a beast that frightens away the spirits, brings luck, and is prophetic? Cp. Negelein, “Das Pferd in Seelenglauben u. Seelenkult,” *Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 11, p. 406 ff.; Bd. 12, p. 14 ff.; 377 ff.; especially Bd. 11, p. 406 f.; 409 ff.; Bd. 12, p. 384; MBh., iv, 39.6; 46.25; K., 46.8; etc.; Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 592 (the Rājputs to-day still see an omen in the horse’s neighing); Schroeder, *Mysterium u. Mimus im Rigveda*, 429 ff.; George Wilke, *Kulturbeziehungen*, etc. (Würzburg., 1913), p. 122; Fr. S. Krauss, *Slav. Volkforsch.*, 130. As widow-burning probably originated with the Kshattriyas, it may be indeed that therefore this warrior-animal kept true to the Sati.