Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c18.10

v2.c18.10

² The Epic, above all the MBh., owed its birth originally to the Kshattriya environment, or at least mainly so, and to the bardic poetry, which above all painted the warrior nobility. This must not be forgotten where the question arises as to the influence and standing of the woman. The Rājputs in particular, who at least in part, are descendants of the Kshattriyas, may be brought in here as elucidation. Indeed their Bhāt or bards of to-day are etymologically the old Bharatas. And just as the old bard and his highly honoured position was kept up in Rājputāna and among the Marathas, so, too, the Johur custom (Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 284 f.; 331; 347 f.; 674 f.; ii, 66) and the like among them will be found to link them with the olden time and the bardic poetry, unfortunately dreadfully mutilated in the Epic. In a burning like this of masses of women we may, indeed, see but barbaric ways and instincts. But such things as this remind us of the old Germans. Anyhow, in this there is to be seen a higher value set on woman and her purity. Thus a Rājput had to kill his daughter with his own hand, if she had been found in the arms of a young man. Dubois-Beauchamp[^3], p. 37. Especially does Tod, not very critically