Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.12

v2.c19.12

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.