[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.c19.63 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.63 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.63 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.63) ¹ These passages, indeed, in the first place, anyhow, are aimed at the horrible practice, not confined, in Old India anyhow, to actors and suchlike, of a man living on his wife’s vice. This crime is equal to killing a Kshattriya, Vaiçya, or Çudra, or a cow, and leads to torture for a world-era in the twenty-one hells, and then to births as a water-beast. Viṣṇusmṛiti, xxxvii, 25; xliii, 26; xliv, 5. One so without honour cannot be a witness. Nārada, i, 183. Food from such as allow their wife to have a lover, or live with him under one roof must not be accepted by the twice-born man. Yājñav., i, 164; Viṣṇu, li, 16; Manu, iv, 216, 217; Gautama, xvii, 18 (cp. with xv, 17); Vasiṣṭha, xiv, 6, 11. Indeed, he that takes money from his wife’s lover, and so shuts his eyes, must pay eightfold as a fine. Kauṭilya, 360.4-6; Yājñav., ii, 301. - [Previous: v2.c19.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.62) - [Next: v2.c19.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.64) - [Up: v2.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19) ## Linked texts (7) - [Vaiṣṇava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.visnu.37.25) — Viṣṇu, Sanskrit - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu.4.216) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit - [Vasiṣṭhadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.vasistha.14.6) — Vasiṣṭha, Sanskrit - [Yājñavalkyasmṛti](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.yajnavalkya.1.164) — Yājñavalkya, Sanskrit - [Gautamadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.gautama.17.18) — Gautama (dharmasūtrakāra), Sanskrit - [Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.artha.kautilya) — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit - [Nāradasmṛti](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.narada) — Nārada, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.63) · Pramāṇa