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Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19: XIX. Position, Rank, and Importance of Woman

Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19

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XIX. Position, Rank, and Importance of Woman

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THUS the share taken in events by the woman of the Epic is very important, whether it is by urging on and arousing, the more usual case, or by appeasing, and seeking to reconciliate. Thus Dhanamjaya, when Dhṛtarāṣṭra wishes to question him alone on important matters, says that Vyāsa and Gāndhārī, the queen, must be there too, for “I should never care to say anything to thee in secret, for resentment might lay hold of thee. But those two can¹ persuade thee from resentment, O princess; for they are well versed in the law, ready, and quick at decision”. And so it is done (v, 67.6, 7). In v, 129.1 ff. all try in vain to induce Duryodhana to be reconciled to the Pāṇḍavas; he goes off in a rage, and Kṛṣṇa’s advice is to bind the stubborn man and his fellows. Then Gāndhārī is called; she orders Duryodhana to appear before her, and she harangues him violently—though fruitlessly in this case—as has already been mentioned. In v, 148.28-36 she uses the same angry and energetic words towards him, here, too, in a deliberative gathering of the great ones of the kingdom, where she has her seat and vote with the men. Cp. also ii, 75, where she even advises the harshest and not at all motherly measures to be taken with him. When Yudhishthira has won the kingdom in the bloody battles, he first satisfies politeness by “announcing” or offering it to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Gāndhārī, and Vidura (xii, 45.11). He waits, too, on Gāndhārī before any of the others, and on Dhṛtarāṣṭra only after her, when, being invited to Hāstinapura, he appears there (ii, 58.27 ff.).² See also iii, 9.1-3; 254.28, 34; v, 114.4 f.; vi, 49.8-12; 88.47; 89.6 ff.; xi, 11.1 ff.; xiv, 52.25 ff.

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¹ Or: shall.

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² The royal ladies, too, are among the few persons named as being visited by Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa, before these two go away to Dvāravatī (xiv, 52.25 ff.). Cp. ii, 45.56 ff.

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With Satyavatī’s approval Bhīshma appoints Vicitravīrya as king (v, 173.6) ; with her consent he sets out to bring him his wives (i, 102.4). As soon as he has brought them to Hāstinapura, he tells his “mother” of all (v, 173.22 ff.) ; it is with her approval that the wedding takes place (i, 102.60 ; v, 174.4 ; cp. 176.49). So also he asks leave of her when he wishes to leave Ambā to her beloved (v, 175.¹ ; 176.52) ; it is her, too, that he first tells of his coming fight with Paraçurāma, and she gives him her blessing (v, 178.72 f.) ; in the same way he tells her of the result of the battle (v, 186.12). After Citrāṅgada’s death he carries on the government, together with her (i, 102.1 ; cp. 102.72, 73). As we have seen, she also takes care that an heir to the throne is begotten (i, 103 ff. ; cp. 110.3). When Yudhishṭhira starts on his journey to heaven, he leaves the care of the kings he has established to Subhadrā, the wife of Arjuna and grandmother of the heir to the kingdom (xvii, 1.6 ff.).

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Thus these Kshattriya women stand with the men in the most important matters.¹ It is even held that where there are no sons, maidens shall be dedicated as rulers (xii, 33.45). It is true that even the Strīrājya, or empire of the Amazons, has a king ; he comes to the Svayaṃvara at Rājapura (xii, 4.7) ; and we are assured that where a woman takes the reins everything comes to grief (v, 38.43). That the “regiment of women” did often really oppress the land may be clearly seen also from ii, 5.76. Thus a most significant saying of an Asiatic despotic ruler, who offers to give everything to her that enjoys his favour, is that of Daçaratha, when Kaikeyī at the news of Rāma’s coming dedication as prince asks her old lover for a “favour” (iii, 227.22 ff. ; cp. Rām., ii, 10.27 ff.): “ ’Tis well. I will grant thee the gift of wishing. Take what thou wouldst have. Who that should not be killed is now to be killed ? Or who that is doomed to death shall be set free ? Whose belongings am I to give thee ? Or from whom shall they be taken away by me ? Which poor man is now to be made rich ? And which wealthy man is to be left with nothing? I am the king of kings on earth and the shield of the four castes. Do but say at once what thou needest.”

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¹ Cp. Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 643, as to the wife : “The Rajput consults her in every transaction” (probably to be taken with a pinch of salt).

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And in other ways also the women do not sit aloof from the world and its joys, but experience all kinds of things beside the men. While the Pāṇḍavas and the Brahmans are sitting there in earnest discussion, Draupadī and Satyabhāmā come in, merrily jesting and laughing, and sit down with them. Satyabhāmā playfully asks Draupadī by what means she keeps such splendid heroes as the five brothers under her heel (iii, 233.1 ff.). When the Pāṇḍavas’ army goes forth to Kurukshetra to the fight, Draupadī accompanies the troops as far as Upaplavya, and then comes home again with her women (v, 151.60). And as several of the highest ladies strike up a wailing for the dead on the battle field during the days of the fight, Draupadī among them, it is evident that they often come on a visit to the camp. The wives (kalatra) are taken right into the field, and on the march to the battlefield they are in the army’s centre (v, 151.58 ; 196.26 f.).¹ And these are not only the life-mates of ordinary warriors,

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¹ Cp. xii, 100.43. But it is uncertain in this passage whether the army is meant to be marching out to the battlefield, or attacking. Judging by the somewhat loose formation, indeed, one would be inclined to think rather of the last-named alternative. “In front let the army of the men be, of those armed with sword and shield, behind let the army of carts be, and in the middle the womenfolk.” Or, since the carts and the women always go together at other times : “Behind and in the middle let the army of carts and the womenfolk be”? The carts (çakaṭā) are according to Nil. on v, 196.26 bhāṇḍavanti anāṃsi “the waggons carrying the ‘outfit’.” By this is first of all meant all kinds of army implements (cp. e.g. v, 196.10), and then probably table-ware, provisions, etc. In our passage, where āpaṇa is wanting, the carts may partly also contain traders’ goods. These are anyhow also near the women. Cp. Kauṭilya, 565.7 ff.; but also 515.3-4; 516.21 ff. These passages, it is true, show that probably also in the Epic by kalatra are meant, above all, the wives of the soldiers. Cp. Kauṭ., 515.25 ff.—Droṇa’s wife, Tārkshi, looks on in the battle between the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas, and is there wounded by an arrow and dies. Mārk.-Pur., ii, 34 ff.

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POSITION, RANK, AND IMPORTANCE

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but the royal wives, too, accompanied by their guards (xi, 29.65 ff. ; 30.3 ; 62.4 ff. ; x, 8.24 ff.).

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Duryodhana goes off hunting and cattle-branding with his brothers and friends ; it is a glorious journey through the forest and country ; thousands of women go with them, as also townsmen with their wives (iii, 239 f.). So also King Sumitra and Pāṇḍu both take their wives when they go hunting (xii, 126.9 ; i, 114). We have already spoken of the picnics in the open air, and the lively share taken in them by the women-folk. A festival often mentioned is that already spoken of, the festival of Indra's banner (Indradhvaja). We have heard, too, of the festival in honour of the mountain Raivataka. It is splendidly bedecked for this, and food is brought out in plenty. "Palaces" are built there, and "wishing-trees" (kalpavṛksha) planted. Music rings out, songs resound, there is dancing, the *jeunesse dorée* drives about in chariots gleaming with gold, there are swarms of townsmen and their wives, and the princely personages show themselves with harems of thousands, and sumptuous trains of music ; Kṛiṣhṇa's elder brother here too sets his usual example, copied by very many, and reels about drunk (i, 218.9 ; 219).

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It is a pleasure-seeking, merry-making world that opens before our eyes in the Epic. Feast-days, particularly religious occasions, were found there in plenty ; all kinds of shows and entertainments, as also extraordinary and fittingly welcomed events broke the monotony of life ; and the flock of women, high and low, threw themselves into the waves of pleasure, merry, greedy to see and hear, and, so far as possible, taking an active part. There they showed themselves in all their finery, and, of course, sought to be seen. How often we are told—in the Epic and the other literature—that on such occasions the streets were watered, the city was decorated with flowers, wreaths, garlands, bright cloths, flags, and so forth, while sham-fighters, dancers, mimes, and the like showed off their arts, and all the people jostled one another, and gave themselves up to merry-making. And when something really startling happened, or was displayed before the eyes of the crowd or of the smaller select circle, then, in the Epic world, clothing was waved in joyful applause, just as it is so often painted for us in the Jātaka.¹ If anything special was going on below in the street, then from the houses, and from everywhere that gave a good opportunity for seeing, a thousand women’s eyes looked down.

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¹ Cp. e.g. my Daçakum., pp. 51, 52; Kalpasūtra, i, 100; Aupapātikas., ed. Leumann, § 1; Bhāgavatapur., i, 11.14 ff.; iv, 9.53 ff., and for the celukkhepana, Lalitavistara, ed. Lefmann, p. 145; MBh., i, 188.2, 23; 190.1; ii, 70.7; vi, 43.30; 121.28; vii, 19.19; 21.13; 109.32; 114.96; viii, 23.2; 86.9; 91.58; 61.4; Rām., v, 57.26.

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Men, women, and children come out from Hāstinapura to give a festal welcome to the Pāṇḍavas’ envoy, Kṛṣṇa (v, 86.17), and at his entry “the very great houses, too, (are) covered with women, and seem to totter under the burden” (v, 89.9). Not a soul has stayed at home, man or woman, child or greybeard, and the guest’s horses cannot drive on for the throng (çl. 7). As he then drives in most splendid array to the royal assembly hall, women stand thickly crowded on balconies (vedikā, v, 94.26). Hundreds and thousands of women are at the windows, when Arjuna on his gold-hubbed chariot drives into the city of Dvārakā (i, 218.18). After the festival of the dead, Yudhishṭhira has dwelt a month long outside the city. He now comes back, and the houses on the main street almost give way under the crowd of women-onlookers singing the praises of him and his brothers (xii, 38.3 ff.). Especially when a battle has been won, and the conqueror comes back in triumph are the women again to the fore. So does King Virāṭa’s son come back to the festally decked city, and youths and harlots, together with the young princess and her girl-friends, in choicest garb and ornaments come to meet him; and the whole people and lovely women in magnificent ornaments, as also the army, and all kinds of loudly sounding musical instruments make up his escort (iv, 68.22 ff.). So, too, the public women and the young girls appear as the welcoming escort of the victor in iv, 34.17, 18, and elsewhere, as has already been described. The Kshattriyas and the women, but anyhow only those of the better kind, of higher rank, especially the noblewomen, are there drivin in chariots, too. So it is when the five sons of Pāṇḍu are

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brought by the Rishis to Hāstinapura, and the whole people streams out at their coming (i, 126.13). And when these princes and their cousins have then passed through the instruction, a splendid school festival is held, where they give proofs of their skill in arms. A mighty stand is put up for the king and the women. Broad, high-towering staging and costly compartments¹ the countrymen had to build. When the day had come, the king with his great men came into the “heaven-like stand, made of gold, adorned with jewels, hung with a net of pearls. And Gāndhārī, the excelling one, and Kuntī and all the king’s wives with their serving-women and their following joyfully climbed onto the stages, as the wives of the gods onto Meru. The four castes with the Brahmans and the Kshattriyas at their head came quickly there out of the city, full of the yearning to see the princes’ skill at arms. Through the loud-resounding musical instruments, and the joyously eager excitement among the people this gathering was like unto the high-billowing sea” (i, 134.8 ff.). Amidst the crash of music the warrior school-display then takes its course (135.6). The crowd billows and sinks in a mad confusion, thundering shouts and loud applause rise from the crowd of onlookers, when Arjuna, armed and in golden armour, shows himself to their admiring eyes (135.8 ff.). The most lively and strained attention follows what is happening on the stage. The wondrous son of the sun, Karṇa, unexpectedly rises and shines as a hostile star against the no less astonished light of the bowman’s art, and threatens to obscure it; “rent in twain was the theatre, and two parties formed among the women” (136.27).

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¹ Çibikā. Perhaps less likely: balconies (or platforms). The P.W. throws no light.

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Then there were the great sacrifices of the kings and others, and the many private festal occasions, as, for instance, the feeding of Brahmans (often set on foot by women), whither all kinds of people streamed and made merry, and ate and drank their glorious fill; and women guests came to them, too, and made themselves as drunk as the men (i, 148.5 ff.). Further, women held puṇyaka, for instance, that is to say, celebrations to ensure their husband’s love and to get a son;

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at these the Brahmans served, and liked to appear in rich ornaments (i, 3.96).

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And there was very much else also to see. So (according to ii, 23) there took place a mighty wrestling and boxing match between Bhīma and King Jarāsandha, and the women came thither, too, to delight their eyes and hearts at it (çl. 22). The ladies cannot have been over-delicate, for when we read of the hellish din which the warlike music of the Epic makes with its many instruments, to say nothing of the noise of the fight and the horrors of such exhibitions, we cannot but wholeheartedly wonder at the nerves of the weaker sex, that comes here with the crowd to the men's contest. The women take a great delight in heroes and heroic deeds. Whenever Arjuna shows himself in his panoply, the daughters of Brahmans and Kshattriyas, and Vaiçya maidens run up from their play to gaze on him—just as it is with us (v, 30.8). King Virāṭa makes the strong Bhīma give real gladiatorial displays before the beauties of his harem : boxing displays, trying his strength with wild lions, tigers, buffaloes, bears, and slaughtering them before the eyes of the ladies (iv, 8.10 ; 13.4 ; 19.5, 6 ; 71.5). They are also, it is true, entertained with milder arts. Eunuchs are appointed in the women's apartments to delight the women and the prince himself with tales and the rest. So Arjuna disguises himself as a eunuch, and enters into the service of King Virāṭa. He is skilled in singing, all kinds of dances, and the various musical instruments, and has other accomplishments. By the ruler's orders he is examined by women as to his sex, and declared to belong to the third—how that can be is left, indeed, in the dark—and then taken into the girls' dwelling, where he instructs the young princess and her girl friends in dancing, singing, and music (iv, 2.25 ff. 11.8 ff. ; and often in what follows after ; cp. vii, 64.11).¹

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¹ According to iv, 45.12-15 he was then no eunuch ; while iii, 46.59 and K, 3.49 make him become really sexless for this one year owing to the curse of Urvaçī.

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Also when the heroes travel to visit kinsfolk or friends, they take their wives with them, at least at times. So the Pāṇḍavas, when they go to the dice-game, at Hāstinapura, as also Kṛiṣhṇa, who with Satyabhāmā makes a visit to the banished Pāṇḍavas in the Kāmyaka forest (iii, 183). No less so Subhadrā is allowed to accompany Arjuna, though it is true this is on a visit to her own home Dvāravatī (xiv, 52.55; 61.41). The womenfolk then naturally greet one another most lovingly, although the seemingly so gentle ladies may often have the same feelings at heart as Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s daughters-in-law, of whom we read: “When they saw the peerless loveliness, as it were, blazing up, of Draupadī, they were not in an altogether happy frame of mind” (ii, 58.33). So, too, they made one another the richest gifts, especially on great festal occasions, as at the horse-sacrifice (xiv, 88.1 ff.). But in general people did not hold much with wives travelling. A saying declares: “A blot (shameful stain) for the earth is the Bāhlīka, for the man the lie, for the good woman curiosity, and for wives travelling” (v, 39.80).¹

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¹ Vipravāsamalāḥ striyaḥ, which here probably hardly means: When the husband goes off on a journey, the women enjoy themselves elsewhere.

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It is now clear from what we have shown up till now that women of the “higher circles”, especially those belonging to the warrior nobility, with whom the Epic is naturally most concerned, enjoyed no small measure of freedom. But the harem, too, is in the Epic an institution taken for granted, for the reason first of all that those of high standing often had many wives.

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Polygamy is right for the man, but not for the woman: “Polygamy, O fair one, is no wrong for the men, but it is so probably for the women” (xiv, 80.14). Here as elsewhere it is also quite immaterial whether the husband is still alive or is dead; for the woman one man is appointed, none along with him, none after him. So does the Brahman woman exhort her husband in i, 158.35, 36 to send her as sacrifice to the man-eating monster, for he can then take another wife. “And no blame is laid on the men that marry many wives, but very great blame is laid on women, if they offend their first husband (through a new marriage).” For: “This friendship the Maker has made an everlasting, deathless one” (xiv, 80.15). The indissolubility of this bond of friendship is therefore only a one-sided one. Still the man, too, has certain duties in his polygynic marriage. This is what the old legend says : Daksha had twenty-seven daughters, the constellations. He married them to Soma, the moon. They were all without compare for beauty ; but Rohiṇī outshone even her sisters. Therefore the moon loved only her, and partook of love's joys with her alone. Then the others went in anger to their father and told him that their husband kept always with Rohiṇī ; therefore they wished to live with their father, and take refuge in asceticism. Daksha admonished the sinner : " Behave in the same way towards all thy wives that a great guilt may not come on thee." To his daughters he spoke : " Now he will treat you all the same, since I have so bidden him. Go back to him." But the evil man went on doing as before. The poor rejected ones came with new complaints to their father. He warned Soma : " Behave in like wise towards all thy wives that I may not curse thee." But the stubborn man gave no heed to his words ; the daughters once more took their anger and grief before their father, and begged him to see to it that the moon god should also give them his love. Then Daksha grew angry and sent a decline on the offender. Sacrifices and everything possible the moon, ever decreasing, undertook, but nothing helped. As a result the plants and herbs also vanished away, whose growth and strength, indeed, depends on the orb of night, the lord of plants ; and as these last grew dry and sapless, and had no new growth, all creatures suffered and died of hunger. The gods asked the moon what was the reason of his decline, and when he had told them, they begged Daksha to put a stop to the destruction of the world. He spoke : " The moon must always treat his wives exactly alike, and bathe himself in Prabhāsa, the holy pilgrimage-place of Sarasvatī. Then he will set himself free from the curse ; he will henceforth for a half month wane, and for a half month wax again " (ix, 35.45 ff. ; cp. xii, 342.57). Thus that curse that fell on him for his partiality is to-day still at work (xii, 342.57, 58).¹

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¹ Kāmasūtra, ed. Durgaprasad ², p. 253 demands : " But if a man has gathered many wives, then let him be the same (to all)." According to Osman Bey, Die Frauen i.d. Türkei (Berl., 1886), p. 15, Mohammed also had required the man to love and treat his wives all alike. But the Prophet was far too experienced in matters of women to make

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But that one wife should be preferred is so natural, that we often hear of it elsewhere, too, in the Epic; and there the lot of the wife passed over is often a most touching one. So in Kauçalyā’s case: beside his favourite wife Kaikeyī she is as nothing to her lord and husband Daçaratha, in spite of all her charms; she then comforts herself with the thought that her son Rāma will bring her happiness and joy, but when he is to be consecrated as heir to the throne, her rival at the last moment snatches this stay away from her also: Rāma has to leave his mother, go into fourteen years’ banishment, and hand over the kingdom to Bharata. “Like the slender shaft of the çala-tree that is felled by the axe in the forest, the queen suddenly fell to the ground.” She makes her plaint before her son: “The barren woman has one anguish of soul, but no other. ‘Neither happiness nor joy have I ever had of my husband’s manhood; may I see them in my son,’ so, my Rāma, I lived in hope. I shall have to hear many unlovely words from my fellow-wives that stand below me, words that stab the heart, I that am the highest, too. What could there be more painful for the wife than my grief and endless wail! Even thou wast still here, I was the hurt rejected wife; how much the more will it be so when thou art gone! Death for me is a certainty. Never held in love or honour by my husband, I was oppressed by Kaikeyī’s waiting-women, although I am equal to her, nay better. Seventeen years are gone since thou wast born, and I have been longing for my care to pass. That it still lives, this I, who am so harshly treated, cannot long bear, nor the slights from my rivals, if I am no more to behold thy moon-like countenance. By fasting and magic

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such a demand. In the 4th sura of the Koran we find: “It cannot be that you should feel the same love towards all your wives, even if you wish to. But you must do your best not to show an open dislike for any of your wives” (p. 70 in Ullmann’s German transl., Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1881). And the poor man with many wives often honestly tries to do this, as can be seen, for instance, from p. 76 in Osman Bey. On the waning moon Crooke, *Popul. Relig.*, i, 10-13. Soma, the moon, is also a giver of rain, and a god of fruitfulness. L. v. Schroeder, *Reden u. Aufsätze*, 409, 413; Meyer, Kautilya, index under “Mond”; H. Winckler, *Die babylonische Geisteskultur* 2, p. 63.

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and much hardship I, unhappy one, have in vain reared thee. For me there is assuredly no dying, and in the house of death there is no room for me, so that the god of death will not yet snatch me away, as the lion does violently a whimpering gazelle. My heart, it is evident, is strong, made of iron, since it breaks not—before the appointed time there is assuredly no dying” (Rām., ii, 20.32 ff.). So also Devayānī and her son in the Rāmāyaṇa (vii, 58.7 ff.) arouse the deepest pity. King Yayāti has two wives: Devayānī and Ṣarmiṣṭhā; he loves the latter, but not Devayānī. And in the same way all his tenderness goes to the favoured woman’s son; but Yadu, the child of the shunned wife is the father’s step-child. Then speaks Yadu to his mother: “Born in the race of Bhṛigu’s son, of the god of unhindered deeds, thou bearest with sorrow that goes to the heart, and with contempt that is hard to bear. We too will go together into the fire. The king may go on taking his delight for long with the daughter of the Daitya. Or if thou canst bear it, then grant me leave. Do thou submit to it, I shall not; I am going to die, that is sure.” When Devayānī heard these words from her weeping, deep-tortured son, she went in hot anger to her father, told him of her contemptible position, and threatened to kill herself, if he did not bring a change about. In his anger the holy man laid the curse on the evil-doer of falling a victim to old age now in his very youth.¹

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¹ Cp. Viṣṇupur. (Wilson), vol. i, p. 159 ff. (amça, i, adhyāya, xi, the legend of Dhruva); for Yayāti, Wilson, *Select Works*, ed. Hall, vol. iii, pp. 36-37. Schack, *Stimmen vom Ganges*, p. 189 ff., has given a poetical rendering of the tale of Dhruva after the Bhāgavatapur.

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But even without such injustice from the husband enmity between his various wives appears in the Epic as normal and quite a matter of course.² Needless was the ethical teacher’s sermon there: “For wives, besides intrigues with other men there is nothing to do them hurt in the world beyond, and besides hatred against the fellow-wife nothing to do them hurt in this world” (i, 233.26). Already the two daughters of Prajāpati, the maker of the world—Kadrū and Vinatā—wives of one man, quarrelled with one another, and the one as the result of a wager became the slave of the other (i, 20 ff.). The holy man Mandapāla in the form of a bird weds a hen-bird Jaritā. When she has laid four eggs, he leaves her, and goes off with another hen-bird, Lapitā. In the Khāṇḍava forest, where they dwell, the great fire now breaks out; he then wants to go off and see after his offspring. But Lapitā is very angry, and sulks : “Thou only wantest to go to my foe, and dost not love me any more as thou didst once.” And when he then comes to the fledglings and their mother, they do not deign to give him one friendly look or word; only Jaritā throws at him : “Go away, do, to thy Lapitā!” (i, 229 ff., especially 233.7 ff., 24 ff.).—When Kuntī has got three sons, her fellow-wife Mādrī says to Pāṇḍu that she would also like to have children, but cannot in her jealous anger against her rival (samrambha) ask her herself; so he must be the one to make of her the request to help her fellow to have offspring. This, she says, will be well for him also. Kuntī teaches Mādrī how to go about it, and this obliging act is called a very hard thing (sudushkara). But she that is thus favoured gets at one swoop two sons from the Açvins, and then Kuntī is filled with moral indignation at the bad woman who has deceived her, she says, and filled with the fear that the hated one will become too powerful by having more children, and do her harm; therefore she refuses to get her any more sons (i, 124). That the fiery Draupadī does not look on with particularly kindly eyes, when her darling Arjuna brings home a new wife, Subhadrā, may at once guessed. She flings the words at him : “Go, then, I pray, to where the daughter of Sātvata dwells. However tightly bound a bundle is, if it is tied up once more, then the first fastening becomes loose.” Arjuna tries over and over again to reconcile and console her, and then sends his wondrous lovely new wife, clad in red silk and as a shepherdess, thus to show her lowly standing, into his women’s apartment. Kuntī kisses the new-comer. The latter bows respectfully before her rival, and says : “I am thy servant.” Then the deeply hurt lady makes the best of a bad thing, and clasps Subhadrā to her. “Now were the hearts of the Pāṇḍavas, the great chariot-fighters, joyfully stirred, and Kuntī filled with the utmost joy ” (i, 221.15 ff.). Cp. also xiv, 88.

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² Sapatnī means the fellow-wife, literally: the woman enemy. Cp. what Lane, *Arabian Society in the Middle Ages*, p. 245, says of the Arabic darrah.

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As so often in the Indian writings, the loss, by a wife, of her standing to a new rival shows itself as one of the greatest sorrows on this earth already so full of sorrows. “ The sorrow of him that loses his all, and of him whose son is slain ; the sorrow of the wife that is robbed of her husband, and of him whom the king has laid hold of ; the sorrow of the childless woman, and of him that already feels the tiger’s breath on him¹; the sorrow of the wife when her husband takes another besides, and of him that is convicted by witnesses—these sorrows are alike ” (ii, 68.81 ff.). So also in v, 35.31, 32, among those who spend dreadful nights is found the adhivinnā strī, the wife who is put in the background through a new wife being taken (This çloka is = Nārada, i, 203. Cp. Meyer, *Altind. Rechts-schriften*, 109-11 ; Kautilya, index under “Überheiratung”). No wonder if she then often left her husband’s house in anger, as we may conclude from Manu, ix, 83.²

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¹ Vyāghrāghrāta. So far as I remember, āghrā is found in this peculiar usage only with the tiger. According to the lexicographers and the commentators (e.g. Mālatīmādhava, v, 29) it means “ to catch hold of ” (grih). But I think that it has, at least originally, the meaning “ to follow the scent of, to follow after ”. So we read in MBh., vii, 128.9 : “ Thy followers in the battle ran away, like gazelles scented (tracked) by the tiger.” It cannot mean “ caught hold of ” there.

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² True jealousy is foreign to the primitive woman, at least as a rule. The wife of the proud owner of many wives is often as proud of this mark of the power and influence of her lord as is the wife of the rich upstart of his money-bags, and with not less reason. Indeed, the wife is often even angered, if her skinflint husband does not find her a new help for the household. Envy, indeed, is inseparable from woman, and Jean Paul therefore holds that all women should really go to hell, since there they could have so splendid a chance of showing their fairest and strongest virtue—sympathy, whereas in heaven at the sight of all the glories, particularly of their sisters, envy would almost kill them (in *Quintus Fixlein*, first edit. of the collected works, vol. 4, p. 118 f.). The husband with many wives has therefore even among savages his troubles at home, because each of his wives is always watching him to see whether the other is not getting something she her-

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self has not, and so forth. Here Mark Twain has seen the truth very clearly in the delightful 15th chapter, vol. i, of *Roughing It*. Cp. e.g. Hertel, *Indische Märchen*, p. 131 f. When culture becomes higher, envy does not grow less, and true jealousy is found more and more; and in spite of all the men and women defenders who have come forward among us on behalf of the Oriental harem, and in spite of the apparent exaggeration in many cases of what has been written of the unhappiness of women in the harem, it still remains true that we see there picture after picture of hatred and darkness. Here we give only one or two examples from Old India. “What is the greatest sorrow of the woman?” the king of Benares asks his wife. She answers: “Anger at her rival” (Jāt., No. 489). Cp. e.g. Shib Chunder Bose, *The Hindoos as They Are*, 38 ff.; 229 ff.; espec. 40; Bulloram Mullick, *Home Life in Bengal* (1885), pp. 26-28; Chavannes, *Cinq cents contes*, ii, 120. If a woman cannot have her revenge in this life, then she will probably at her own wish become a Yakkhinī after death, and eat the hated woman’s children away (Jāt., Nos. 510, 513; cp. vol. v, p. 39 f.). “Of enmities, that between a head wife and a secondary one is the worst” (Schiefner, *Bull. d. St. Petersburger Akad.*, Bd. 24, col. 503; cp. Bd. 23, col. 558). One or two drastic happenings in a household of this kind are given in the passage from the Petavatthu which I have given in note 2 to p. 305 of the Daçakum. Here the fifty daughters of Māndhātār in the tale of the holy man Saubhari are worthy of remark; it is told by the Purāṇas as an example of life in the house constantly increasing the wishes. These princesses are all married to this Ṛishi, who uses his wonderful powers among other things to split himself up into fifty husbands full of love, and each of the wives complains now to her father of one thing only: that the husband is always with her only, and neglects the other forty-nine. So Wilson’s *Vishnupur.*, vol. iii, p. 273 ff. See also my *Hindu Tales*, p. 60, note 1. But a still greater self-denial is shown by the faithful wife of a Brahman in Mārkaṇḍeyapur., xvi, 14 ff.: She has a leper husband, and treats him most lovingly in spite of all his hideousness and spiteful outbursts of anger. He now wants her to introduce him to a beautiful hetæra, and she cheerfully sets about doing so. She acts therefore according to the commandment: “Let the wife show every kindness to the woman with whom her husband is in love” (MBh., K, xiii, 250.13); and according to the ideal put forward in Kāmasūtra, ed. Durgaprasad 2, pp. 242-246 and 250 (the two last sūtras). A picture such as this of deep yearning is painted in glowing colours by the great English painter and poet, William Blake: “She shall begin to give her maidens to her husband, delighting in his delight; And All the splendour of the court must then usually have but little lightened the pain in the soul even of the ruler's wife, perhaps sometimes have strengthened it still more, even when she saw herself still outwardly honourably treated as before by her husband. This harem life, anyhow, is luxurious enough, as the Epic paints it for us in glowing colours. So, for instance, that of Rāvaṇa (Rām., v, 9 ff.). Even the captive Sītā is housed in a fairy-like aṣoka-grove, which ravishes the senses with endless scented lotus-ponds, all kinds of trees, birds, and beasts, splendid palaces, and a thousand other glories (Rām., v, 15.1–15; 18.6–9). The dwelling of the favourite Kaikeyī is thus described in Rām., ii, 10.11 ff.: Parrots, peacocks, plovers, and swans were to be seen there; musical instruments resounded; hunch-backed and dwarf women ran here and there; arbours of climbing plants, and painted houses met

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then, and then alone begins the happy female joy.” “Milton,” p. 32, ll. 17 ff. Cp. the dithyrambs: “I cry: Love! Love!” etc. in his “Vision of the Daughters of Albion”, p. 7 (both in Ellis's edit.). See there especially the verses: “But silken nets and traps of adamant will Oothon [the wife] spread And catch for thee girls of mild silver, or of furious gold . . . Oothon shall view his dear delight, nor e'er will jealous cloud Come in the heaven of generous love, nor selfish blightings bring.” The pair of women rivals in the Mṛcchakaṭikā is well known, who outbid one another in “nobility of mind”; and in Kālidāsa's Mālavikā and Agnimitra the thoughtful queen; as also, at the end, the praise of the wife who even finds new ladies for her lord's heart, because, she says, the river carries hundreds of streamlets with it to the sea. See, too, my Daçakumāracaritam, p. 305. But despite these and other like cases there is found, so far as I know, in India no historically vouched for example of the kind told us of his own wife by an Arab historian, according to Lane, Arabian Soc. in the Middle Ages, p. 246: She bought handsome girls for her husband, and hoped to be rewarded in heaven for her friendliness towards her husband. Cp. the Turkish examples in Osman Bey, 136 ff.; 143 ff.; as also the Chinese wife whose husband falls in love with another woman, and who uses every means for him to get her (Dunlop-Liebrecht, 523b). There are other such cases. He that knows will understand too. Of the Thongas in South Africa we are even told: “So indifferent are the women to their husband's morals that they will play the go-between for them in their overtures to other girls.” Hartland, Primit. Patern., ii, 207.

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the eye; campaka-trees and aṣoka-trees spread their leaves and flowers; handsome seats of gold, silver, and ivory invited one to rest; cakes and the most various dishes and beverages enticed the palate; and all was decked out as the gods' own heaven. The soft luxury, the pomp and splendour of the palaces, the mighty army of servants and hangers-on, the debauchery in eating and drinking, the bestowal of gifts on the Brahmans and supplicants, and their feeding; the sacrificial festivals, and so on—in short, the whole Eastern court of the rulers is very often touched on or drawn by the Epic. It is, however, true that the later a certain piece seems to be, the more the poet also intoxicates himself with this overflowing luxury; while where older conditions are reflected there often can be seen an extraordinary simplicity in the life of the Kshattriyas.

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Needless to say, there is no wish to find these soft delights lacking in war and in the armed camp. Yudhishṭhira’s morning goes on, as it is described in vii, 82, quite as at court: the court singers and congratulators sing and recite, other singers are heard, the dancers dance, all kinds of musical instruments resound. Thus the prince awakes,¹ then goes into his bathing apartment; there, having put on his thin bathrobe, and seated himself on a splendid seat, he has sandal-water, consecrated with prayers, poured over him from gold vessels by a hundred and eight white-clad bath-servants, is rubbed with ointment (kashāya = sarvaushadhyādikalksa), and sprinkled with scented water; he carries out his sacrifices, bestows gifts on the flocks of Brahmans in his usual crazed way, and so forth. All this after so many days of murderous fighting.—And the Kauravas take counsel comfortably stretched out like the deathless gods on the most splendid couches spread with costly rugs (viii, 10.7). Even at the time of the final blood-bath carried out by Aṣvatthāman he finds Dhṛṣṭadyumna lying on a “great linen-white bed, spread with costly rugs, decked with the most splendid wreaths, perfumed with incense and sweet-smelling powder” (x, 8.12 ff.). Cp. ix, 29.70-72. The women could accompany their husbands into the camp. So, too, Draupadī took many women and serving-girls with her into banishment in the penitential forest (iv, 4.4, and elsewhere), a description due, of course, to later revisers, and one that does not tally at all with many other statements in the Epic. (Cp. e.g. Dubois-Beauchamp 3, p. 678 f.)

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¹ When the Pāṇḍavas come on a visit to their cousins to play dice, they are sung to sleep by women (ii, 58.36). The king is, indeed, always to go to bed and to rise to the sound of music. Kauṭilya, transl., 47.14 ff.; MBh., i, 218.14; ii, 5.86; v, 94.6 ff.; Yājñav., i, 330. His person is so precious and so exposed to danger; but music drives away magical evil; indeed, the knowledge of music leads to redemption. Yājñav., iii, 115 f.

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For the guarding of the women’s apartments there are the often-mentioned “wardens”: old men and eunuchs; and the need and duty of a strict watch on the harem and women in general is often emphasized; for the woman has an insatiable sexual appetite—on this something will be said later—and she can never be trusted. On the other hand the Epic is always declaring that all watching over women is useless. Indeed, he who watches over them not only beats the air with his fist, but goes to hell (v, 37.1-6). Bhīṣma speaks (xiii, 40.13 ff.): “Love of scandal and the lust of sex did the Maker give to women. The man can in no wise preserve them—even were he the All-Maker, and how much less earthly men. Whether it be by words or blows or bonds or pain of various kinds—women cannot be preserved by anything; for they are always unbridled. And yet I was once told of the following case, how in times gone by, the safe-keeping of his teacher’s wife was really brought about by Vipula. There was a most excellent Ṛiṣi, famous under the name of Devaçarman. His wife was called Ruci, and in beauty had not her like on earth. Gods, Gandharvas, and Dānavas were intoxicated by her beauty, but particularly Indra, the slayer of Vṛitra. Now the great Muni Devaçarman knew the ways of women, and looked after his wife to the best of his powers; and he knew full well that Indra, breaker of strongholds, gives free play to his lusts with other men’s wives. Therefore did he keep watch on his wife with a strong hand. Now one day the Ṛiṣi wished to make a sacrifice (for someone), and thought

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within himself: ‘How could my wife be safely kept?’ When he had thought out in his mind a way of keeping her, the great penitent called his beloved disciple Vipula, the child of Bhr̥igu, and spoke unto him: ‘I am going away to make a sacrifice, and since the ruler of the gods is ever following Ruci, do thou watch over her with all thy strength. Thou must ever be watchful against Indra, the stormer of strongholds. For he takes on the most manifold shapes, O best of the Bhr̥igus.’ Thus by him addressed, Vipula answered, ‘Yes’—he, rich in penance, with bridled senses, ever given to strict asceticism, comparable to fire and the sun in brightness, with knowledge of virtue, a speaker of truth. And he in turn, asked the departing teacher: ‘What forms, then, has Cakra, if he comes, O Muni? Of what kind is his appearance and his power? Do thou tell me that.’ Then did he blessed with grace make known Cakra’s juggling trickery to the high-souled Vipula according to the truth. Devaçarman spoke: ‘Many-sided is the trickery of the holy and august Indra. He takes on this being, and that, many kinds of being, always and again. He wears a tiara, he carries the thunderbolt, a bow, he wears a diadem; he wears ear-rings, and then looks at one moment like a Caṇḍāla. Then he appears again with bushy hair on the top of his head, with plaits, in bark clothing, at one time as a man with a mighty body, at another as a thin wearer of bark clothing. Also he takes on light, and dark-blue, and black colouring. He appears as one ugly and one handsome, as a youth and as an old man, as a Brahman and as a Kshattriya, as a Vaiçya and as a Çūdra. . . Another time he takes on the shape of parrots, crows, swans, kokilas, lions, tigers, and elephants. And he wears the outward semblance of a god, of a Daitya, or of kings. As one well-fed, as one crazed,¹ as a bird, as one misshapen, as a four-legged beast—in many shapes does the fool further show himself. He also takes on the outward likeness of flies, gnats, and so on. None can take hold of him, not even the All-Maker by whom this world was made. And then again Çakra is hidden, and he is seen only with the eyes of (supernatural) knowledge. Further the king of the gods also changes himself into wind. Thus is the chastiser of Pāka ever going into changes.¹ Therefore, O Vipula, look thou after this slender one so that the evil-minded Indra may not slobber over Ruci, like a dog over the offering laid there for an appointed² holy ceremony.’ When the Muni had so enlightened him, that most excellent Devaçarman then went to carry out the sacrifice. When Vipula had heard these words of his teacher, he took thought, and kept the strictest watch against the most mighty king of the gods.

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¹ Or: as one possessed, as one with the falling sickness (vāyubhag-nāṅga). Cp. my Daçakum., p. 241; Jolly, *Medizin*, pp. 118, 119; Ward, *View of the Hindoos* 5, p. xxii; Kathākoça, p. 157; Petav., ii, 6.1; and many other passages.

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¹ Already Rigveda, iii, 53.8 says that Indra takes on many shapes through his māyā.

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² Or: that has been started (upahita).

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‘What can I do now to preserve my teacher’s wife? For this ruler of the deathless ones is rich in magical lore, and it is hard to lay hold of the skilful one. The chastiser of Pāka cannot be kept away by shutting up the hermitage or the leaf hut; for his power of making many changes is too great. Even in the shape of the wind Çakra might sully my teacher’s wife. Therefore I will go into this Ruci, and now stay in her. As a man,³ however, I cannot preserve her. For one hears that the holy chastiser of Pāka has many shapes. I will protect her through the power of yoga from him. I will make my way into her, limb by limb,⁴ to keep her. If my teacher now comes back to find his wife something left over from what has been enjoyed (ucchisthā), the great penitent with the godlike knowledge will undoubtedly curse me in his wrath. . . But if I were to be successful (in keeping her really pure) then I should have performed a miracle. Through yoga the penetrating into the body of my teacher’s wife is possible. Thus will I abide in her with a collected and heedful mind, not clinging like a shifting drop of water on the lotus leaf. For me who am free of the cast of passion that will be no sin.

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³ Or: through manly address (paurushena).

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⁴ Or after all better: “Into her limbs I will penetrate with my limbs,” that is, according to what is shown by what comes after: with the spiritual, ruling power in each limb I will sink myself in the corresponding limb of Ruci.

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For as the wanderer on the road goes into an empty rest-house, so will I make the body of my teacher’s wife my lodging (cp. xii, 320.172, 188). Thus shall I dwell in her body with collected mind.’ Learn now, O lord of the earth, how this child of Bhr̥gu practised the greatest care after he had thus looked from every side at what is right and at the Vedas of the Vedas, had looked on his teacher’s and his own bountiful asceticism, and had thus in his mind resolved on taking her into his care. As his teacher’s wife and he sat there, the great penitent Vipula enticed her of the faultless limbs into correspondence with his purpose.¹ With his eyes, with their bridles, Vipula linked the bridle of her eyes, with her organ his organ, and with her mouth his mouth, and so penetrated into her body as wind into space.² Without stirring, the Muni abode there, hidden, like a shadow. Then Vipula dwelt in the body of his teacher’s wife, strengthening and wholly filling it, and heedfully thinking always of the care of her ; and she noticed him not at all.³ All the time, so long as the teacher of this high-minded one had not completed the sacrifice and came not home, he watched over her.⁴ Then came one day the ruler of the gods, thinking: ‘This is a good opportunity’; he came in celestial embodiment and shape to this hermitage. When the king¹ had taken on an incomparable, enticing beauty, and become a most glorious sight to see, he came into the penitential grove. He saw Vipula’s body sitting there without stirring, with staring eyes, as though he were only in a picture, and saw Ruci with the splendid corners of the eyes, the swelling hips and breasts, the great eyes like a lotus leaf, and the face that was as the full moon. When she saw him she was minded to rise up quickly and greet him, amazed at his beauty, and wished apparently to say: ‘Who art thou?’ But as she would have risen, she was hindered by Vipula; held back, O ruler of men, she could not move. To her spoke the ruler of the gods with very fair and soft words: ‘Know, O brightly smiling one, that I am the king of the gods, that I am come hither for thy sake, tortured by the love that has sprung from my longing for thee. Therefore, do thou receive me,² O thou with the lovely brows, before the favourable time goes by.’ The Muni Vipula heard Çakra, the head herdsman of the gods, thus speaking, saw him, as he abode in the body of his teacher’s wife. And the faultless one could not rise to meet him, and could not speak, being withheld by Vipula. But the child of Bhr̥gu understood the mien of his teacher’s wife, and the most mighty one held her back by force through his yoga. And he bound all her senses with yoga bonds. But when Çaci’s husband still saw no change in her, he spoke shamefacedly to her that was bewildered through the power of yoga: ‘Come! come!’ Then she would have answered him. But Vipula twisted the words of his teacher’s wife—‘Ho! what is thy purpose in coming hither?’ sped the words, adorned with rightful speech,³ from her moonlike face. But she stood shamefaced there, when she had spoken these words under the stress of another. And Indra stood there, and was filled with confusion; and when he saw her unnatural condition, the thousand-eyed king of the gods gazed at it with his divinely searching look. Then he saw that the Muni was

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¹ That is, he drew all her attention in a certain direction, enticed her away, according to K (75.57) by telling tales (kathārthaiḥ instead of yathārthe).

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² That is, he permeated her with his mind, so that the guiding activity (“the bridle”) which goes forth to every limb no longer came in her case from her own mind, but from his : her eyes were governed by the power of his mind which was directed to the control of his own eyes; in the same way her sexual parts and her mouth were under the government of the corresponding activities of his mind. “Bridle” is better than “beam” for the reason that raçmim raçmibhiḥ stands on the same footing with lakṣaṇam lakṣaṇena, etc. Cp. xii, 320.17, where the translation should be the same.

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³ Cp. how in the same way the begging nun Sulabhā through yoga goes into the body of King Janaka (xii, 320); or how Vidura by the power of yoga goes into Yudhishṭhira (xv, 26.25 ff.).

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⁴ Or perhaps rather: “He waited for the time when the teacher of this gloriously-natured man should come home after completing the sacrifice”?

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¹ This sounds strange, and probably we should have janādhipa (instead of -paḥ): When he, O king, etc.

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² Read samprāpnuhi instead of samprāptam hi.

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³ Saṃskārabhūṣaṇā; she thus probably spoke Sanskrit.

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within her body, like the reflection in the looking-glass, having gone into the body of his teacher's wife. When the breaker of strongholds saw this man, endowed with terrible asceticism, he trembled in deep fear, filled with dread of his curse. But the great penitent Vipula left the body of his teacher's wife, went into his own body, and spoke unto the quaking Çakra : ‘ Thou fool with unquelled senses, evil-natured Indra, not for long will gods and men hold thee in honour. Hast thou, then, forgotten, Çakra, is it not in thy memory, that Gautama made thee to run, with women's parts drawn all about thee as tokens ?¹ I know what a childishly stupid mind thou hast, what an ignoble soul, what a shifting nature. This woman here is being watched over by me, O blind one ; go thy way, thou evil one. For to-day I will not burn thee with my fiery strength, thou with the unseeing soul ; but it is out of pity for thee, O Vāsava, that I wish not to burn thee. And if my most terrible, wise teacher were to see thee, thou evil-minded one, he would burn thee now with an eye blazing with wrath.² But do not do thus again, Çakra ; thou must reverence the Brahmans, else comest thou together with thy sons and ministers to destruction, annihilated by the might of the Brahmans.’ ”—The shame-stricken Indra vanished without saying a word ; and when the teacher came back, Vipula told him of what the king of the gods had done. Devaçarman praised and rewarded the faithful man, and “ together with his wife, he lived without fear of Indra in the unpeopled forest ” (xiii, 40, 41). It is true Vipula had kept silence about a part of the matter, which was afterwards brought to his consciousness as a blameworthy thing ; he then avowed all the details to his teacher, and all was well. The account ends thus : “ But Vipula alone was successful in ever preserving a woman ; no other in the three worlds has it in his power to safeguard a woman ” (43.27).³

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