Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c17.13.3

v2.c17.13.3

by this win for thyself the highest virtuous merit, and for me the greatest happiness.” And her saying may here be given: “It is said, if the husband dies first, then it comes about that the wife has no worth¹: and it is before me who lead a good life that thou art gone hence, who didst walk the path of excellence” (Rām., vi, 32.9). It is worthy of remark that she so often thinks of her mother-in-law: “I pity neither Rāma nor Lakshmaṇa, the great chariot-fighter, nor myself so much as my poor mother-in-law. For she ponders ever: When Mohammedans, the Mandæans, the old Greeks and Romans, and elsewhere, and a conception which probably is the first root of the custom of wrapping or covering the face when weeping, which, indeed, is also done in the Epic (ix, 63.68 f.; xi, 15.34 f.; etc.). Sorrow itself (çoka) is magical uncleanness (açaunca), but joy and an uplifted soul are magically salutary (çaunca) (MBh., K, vii, 71.20). Food onto which a tear has fallen is nourishment for the ghostly beings (ix, 43.26 f.; Manu, iii, 230). And so on. As a counterpart the fine Buddhist saying may here be quoted: “What is united must divide; we are indeed pilgrims. Mourn not for that which is vanished; love all that is still here” (Jātaka, Bd. iii, 95).