Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.119

v2.c19.119

And long they sat with saddened minds, leaning their lotus-faces on their hands” (ii, 79.32 f.). And yet they were not very fond of her, for the readily understood reason that the “dark one” put them all in the shade through her wonderful beauty. So, too, Dhṛtarāṣṭra says later (ii, 81.19, 20) : “All the wives of the Bharatas together with Gāndhārī wept there terribly, when they saw Kṛṣṇā in the hall, the dutiful lawful wife, her that was glorious in loveliness and the bloom of youth. Together with the children (or : the people) they stand, and ever mourn for her.”¹ Maṇḍodarī excuses herself by the body of her husband, Rāvaṇa : “I ought not to bewail thee that art fallen as a hero, but since I am a woman my heart is in the bonds of pity” (Rām., vi, 111.74).² It is Sītā who shows most beautifully this above all (at least so it is said) womanly virtue (Rām., vi, 113.27 ff.): Hanumant comes to her in captivity, and tells her of Rāma’s victory and the death of Rāvaṇa. Then he wants to kill the cruel monsters of women that have so tortured and mishandled Sītā. But she will not allow it; these poor slave-women, she says, had only acted on the bidding of their lord. “This old strophe with its message of virtue did the bear recite before the tiger. Hearken unto it, thou that flyest through the air : The good man lets not the evil, that other men of evil ways do unto him, reach him at all, but he must live up to the duty he has taken on himself.³ The good have a noble way of life as their ornament. Whether a man be good or bad, or even worthy of death—the noble man must have pity ; there is none that does not offend.” 1