[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c19.15 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.15 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.15 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.15) 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). - [Previous: v2.c19.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.14) - [Next: v2.c19.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.16) - [Up: v2.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19) ## Linked texts (1) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.15) · Pramāṇa