Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.80

Language: English

v2.c13.80.1

knowing of it. How couldst thou, then, go beyond thy kingly duty, and make me, O Bhīshma, who love another, dwell in the house here, especially as thou art a Kaurava? When thou hast decided this thing in thy heart by means of thy mind, then do thou take those steps here which seem to thee fitting. The king of the Çālvas assuredly awaits me. Therefore, O best of the Kurus, give me leave to go. Show pity on me, strong-armed one, best of the upholders of the law. For on earth thou art held to be the soul of truth, so we have been told.' Then I won the leave of Kālī Gandhavatī (Satyavatī), and that of the ministers and the high priests, and that of the house priests, and released Ambā, the eldest maiden. When the girl had received permission, she went to the city of the king of the Çālvas in the care of old Brahmans, and accompanied by her nurse.¹ When she had made the journey, she reached the prince.² When she had come to the king of the Çālvas, she spoke unto him the words: 'I have come for thy sake, O long-armed great-souled one.' To her spoke the lord of the Çālvas, smiling somewhat: 'I desire thee not as wife, that hast first belonged to another, O thou of the lovely face. Go, my good friend, back again to thy sweetheart Bhīshma. I will not have thee after Bhīshma has taken thee by force. For thou wast carried off by Bhīshma, and taken by him as a woman rejoicing in her love, after he had taken hold of thee, and overcome the kings in a great battle.

v2.c13.80.2

I have no yearning to have a wife in thee, that hast already belonged to another, O lovely-faced one. How could a king such as I bring home a woman that has had to do with a stranger, for I have the knowledge and teach the law to others? Go just as thou wishest, my friend; let not this time go by thee unused.' Ambā spoke to him, tormented by the arrows of love: 'Speak not thus to me, O herdsman of the earth. It is in no wise so. I was not carried off by Bhīshma, rejoicing in my love, O harasser of thy foes. By force was I carried away by him, as I wept, and he put the princes to flight. Love me, O lord of the Çālvas, who love thee, and am young and innocent. For to repel those that love one is a thing not praised in the laws. I made prayer to Gaṅgā’s son, to him that never turned his back in the fight, and with his leave I came hither at all speed. Bhīshma, the strong-armed, wants me not; it was for his brother’s sake that Bhīshma’s deed was done, so I have been told. My two sisters, Ambikā and Ambālikā, whom Gaṅgā’s son carried off, he handed over to his younger brother Vicitravīrya. I touch my head, O lord of the Çālvas, as I swear that but for thee, thou man-tiger, I have never thought, nor think, of another bridegroom. And it is not as one that has already had to do with another man that I have come to thee;

v2.c13.80.3

I am speaking the truth, and as I swear this oath I touch my own body.¹ Take me in love, O great-eyed one, me that came herself to thee as a maid, that have never belonged to another, and that yearn for thy tenderness.’ But Çālva gave no more heed to the daughter of the lord of Kāçi, who thus spoke, than does a snake to its sloughed skin. Although the prince was besought by her in this wise with many words, yet did he not believe in the maiden. Then spoke the eldest daughter of the king of Kāçi, filled with anger, her eyes weeping, her voice choked with tears: ‘Repulsed by thee, I go into the wide world. There may the good be my refuge, as truly as truth stands firm.’ But while the maiden thus spoke, and bitterly wailed, the lord of the Çālvas was making renunciation of her. ‘Go, go,’ the Çālva kept on saying to her; ‘I fear Bhīshma, O thou with the lovely hips, and thou art Bhīshma’s own.’ Thus addressed by the Çālva, him the short-sighted one, the mournful one walked out of the city, wailing like a sea-eagle. But as she walked out of the city, she was thinking to herself in her dreadful sorrow: ‘There is no young girl on earth who could be worse off than I am. I am bereft of my kindred, and I have been repulsed by the Çālva; and I cannot go out again to Hāstinapura, after Bhīshma for the Çālva's sake has let me go away. Whom shall I now upbraid : myself or Bhīshma, whom it is hard to get near ? Or my blinded father, who held my Svayamvara ?

v2.c13.80.4

I have brought this evil on myself, since I did not throw myself then from Bhīshma's chariot while the dreadful fight for Çālva was going on ; this is the result which now shows itself—that I have come to the wretched plight of some blind woman. Shame on Bhīshma ! Shame on my foolish father with his blinded mind, who has put me on offer like a public harlot for the purchase price of heroic strength !¹ Shame on myself ! Shame on the king of the Çālvas ! Shame, too, on the Maker ! For through their evil conduct² I have fallen into the very depths of disaster. Come what may, man gets his allotted fate. But the beginning of this misfortune of mine is Bhīshma, son of Çāntanu. I look on it as right and fitting to make Bhīshma pay for it, whether my instrument be asceticism or the fight ; for I hold him to be the cause of my suffering.' ”