Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.86

v2.c13.86

She went off into a penitentical forest and overwhelmed with sorrow she complained of her grief to the dwellers there. But they said they could be of no help, and she asked to be made a nun that she might undertake a heavy penance. For she said she could not go back to her kith and kin. The ascetics now held a council. Some said : She must go back again to her father ; others blamed Bhīshma ; others again held that the Çālva king must be brought to take her. This was opposed by others, since he had rebuffed her. In the end they made known to her that she must go to her father : “ The father or the husband is the woman's refuge : the husband when all is well with her, the father when it goes ill with her. The penitent's life is hard, especially for a delicate daughter of a prince ; and if the kings see thee here alone in the deserted forest, then they will harass thee.” But she insisted that she could not go home, that