[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c17.13 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c17.13 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c17.13 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c17.13.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c17.13.1) Cp. Weinhold, \*Die deutschen Frauen\*, i, 242; Lüders, “Die Jātakas u. d. Epik,” ZDMG, 58, p. 706 f.; Ralston, \*Songs of the Russian People\*, p. 316; Fr. S. Krauss, \*Slav. Folkforsch.\*, p. 113; F. v. d. Leyen, “Entstehung d. Märchens,” \*Herrigs Archiv\*, Bd. 114, p. 12, and the references there; “Den heiligen Petrus u. d. trauernde Mutter” in the splendid \*Sagen u. Märchen d. Südslawen\* of Fr. S. Krauss, 1884, Bd. ii, 307 ff.; \*Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.\*, Bd. 3, p. 151; Caland, \*Toten- u. Bestattungsgebr.\*, p. 74. Often found in India is the belief best expressed in Yājñavalkya, iii, 11 (= Garuḍapur., Pretakalpa, 4.80b-81a; xv, 58): “Since the poor dead one has to drink the tears shed by his kinsfolk together with the mucus, we must not weep; we must, so far as we can, carry out the works that fall to our duty.” By this are meant, anyhow in the first place, the death rites that are helpful to the welfare of the dead one. But a further thought that finds expression in the burial-songs of the Veda—those that are still alive belong to life with its business and its joy—may also be found here. The same saying is found again, e.g. in Garuḍapurāṇasārod., xi, 4, only that here the last pāda is altered to say that all grieving is useless after all, a view stressed in India countless times on such occasions. Weeping for those snatched away is over and over again forbidden in the law writings, especially at the celebration of the death rites. ### [v2.c17.13.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c17.13.2) Whoever in spite of this gives way to this weakness must cleanse himself by bathing. Viṣṇu, xxii, 61 f.; Parāçara, xii, 28. The basis here again is a superstition directed towards the precious self: tears along with seed, sweat, nail-cuttings, etc., belong to the “unclean”, that is, magically baneful products of the human body, which leave one accessible to the evil powers. Manu, v, 135; Viṣṇu, xxii, 81; xxiii, 1. They are calamitous (açiva MBh., iii, 28.18), and an evil omen (Rāvaṇavaha, xi, 124; xv, 43), a conception also found in Germanic lands and among the In the Rāmāyaṇa it is naturally above all the luckless heroine Sītā herself in whose mouth the poet puts affectingly beautiful words of grief. Worthy of especial mention, perhaps, is her sorrow, when Rāma has at length come to set her free, and she, as the result of a magical trick played on her, believes that Rāma is dead, and has to conclude that he has been murdered in his sleep. “Why dost thou not look at me, O king? Why dost thou not answer me, whom thou, the childishly youthful one, didst win as a childishly youthful wife, as a life-comrade? Think of what thou didst promise, when thou didst clasp my hand: ‘Now will I live my life with thee,’ and take me away, who am stricken by sorrow. Up, Rāvaṇa! Kill me, too, swiftly, the wife together with the husband; ### [v2.c17.13.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.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). --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c17.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c17.13) · Pramāṇa