Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.110

v2.c19.110

30-75; etc.). The verse: "The Brahman knows the Brahman, the husband knows the wife, the ruler knows the minister, and the king the king" is, then, probably to be taken pessimistically: the Brahman, the wife, the king, etc., may blind another, but the Brahman's fellow, the wife's life-mate, the king's colleague, etc. know better (v, 38.28). For that no man can ever see into the real being and the thousandfold deception of woman can be read in Indian literature till we are wearied. We have just heard an emphatic support by the Epic from the lips of the Apsaras Pañcacūḍā. But what man does understand that they are as his misfortune. "The fool and the wise man, too, in the world are led astray by women with their power, are led under the sway of love and hate (wrath krodha).¹ Woman's very nature involves the destruction of men. The men of understanding do not cling over-much to the fair" (xiii, 48.37, 38). They belong, indeed, to those four things of the world, but especially of nobles and princes, which are often referred to also in the Epic: wine, dice, hunting, and women (e.g. iii, 13.7; ii, 68.20),² and among these four was shared the dreadful monster made by Cyavana, Mada or intoxication (drunkenness, lust, pride, etc.), as is often stated elsewhere, and several times in the Epic (iii, 124.18 ff.; xiii, 156.16 ff.; cp. xiv, 9.31 ff.). But we are taught in xii, 140.26 that they are to be enjoyed warily (yuktyā), but that to cling to them brings destruction. In women, especially the lovely ones, there abides even something of that most dreadful of horrors: of Brahman-murder (v, 13.18-20), according to the usual account a fourth part (xii, 282.⁴³ ff. ; 342.53 ; Rām., vii, 86.11 ff.). Nay, according to the last-named passage, comely young women stand there fully equal even to actual Brahman-murderers and all their stealthy ways.