Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c15.11

v2.c15.11

But of the well-known tabu relation between father-in-law and daughter-in-law, to which Buddhist writings also allude, the Epic knows nothing.¹ On the other hand it has already been mentioned as a custom of the daughter-in-law to seat herself on the right thigh of her father-in-law, just like his own children (i, 97.9). And, in fact, the Epic shows us the most beautiful relations between the parents-in-law and the daughter-in-law. Especially with her husband's mother the younger woman has affectionate, and even intimate relations. The Epic poetry often touches on this subject, and there is never heard one note of that song of the mother-in-law that we know so well. Whether the then Indian daughter-in-law was really so much better off than is often her later sister cannot, of course, be quite definitively decided. But if we bear