Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c17.48

v2.c17.48

³ The nose which we treat so scurvily, especially in poetry, among the Hindus and their poets comes better into its own. The lovely nose of women is here often spoken of, and the high-bridged nose is looked on as an attraction in the woman (unnasā, tuṅganasā). In men a big organ of smell is a great distinction. In the MBh. Yudhishṭhira often parades his huge, long, hanging, handsome nose. So in i, 188.22; iii, 270.7; iv, 71.13; xv, 25.5. Cārudatta, the ideal man in the Mṛcchakaṭikā, has a very high-arched nose (ed. Stenzler, p. 144, l. 21). Bāṇa in his Harshacarita says in praise of Skandagupta’s nose that it was as long as the pedigree of his king (transl. by Cowell and Thomas, p. 191). The big nose with the tip turned down is the mark of the hero and of the king (Mārk.-Pur., viii, 196). The importance of the bold organ of smell as a measure of capability in love (Krauss, Die Anmut d. weibl. Körpers, p. 230; Storfer, Marias jungfräuliche