Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.7

v2.c19.7

And in other ways also the women do not sit aloof from the world and its joys, but experience all kinds of things beside the men. While the Pāṇḍavas and the Brahmans are sitting there in earnest discussion, Draupadī and Satyabhāmā come in, merrily jesting and laughing, and sit down with them. Satyabhāmā playfully asks Draupadī by what means she keeps such splendid heroes as the five brothers under her heel (iii, 233.1 ff.). When the Pāṇḍavas’ army goes forth to Kurukshetra to the fight, Draupadī accompanies the troops as far as Upaplavya, and then comes home again with her women (v, 151.60). And as several of the highest ladies strike up a wailing for the dead on the battle field during the days of the fight, Draupadī among them, it is evident that they often come on a visit to the camp. The wives (kalatra) are taken right into the field, and on the march to the battlefield they are in the army’s centre (v, 151.58 ; 196.26 f.).¹ And these are not only the life-mates of ordinary warriors,