Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.21

v2.c19.21

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