Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.80

v2.c19.80

¹ One shall “ give the road ” to the aged, the sick, children, carriers of burdens, women, people driving in a cart, a bride going to her husband’s house (Vasisṭha, xiii, 57 ff.); to an old man, a king, one with a burden, a Snātaka, a woman, a sick man, a bridegroom, and to a man in a cart (cakrin, as often elsewhere), say Yājñav., i, 117 and Vishṇu, lxiii, 51. So, too, Gautama, vi, 24 f. (Cp. K, i, 192.13-14, where anyhow bhāri must be read instead of bhīru). All three also lay down the rule that if a Snātaka and a king meet one another, then the king must give way, all being as in Manu, ii, 138 f. Instead of the old man we have here the man who is in the tenth decennium of his life. Āpast. has Brāhmaṇa instead of Snātaka (ii, 5, 11.5-7). Cp. Çukranīti, iii, 279 ff. Mārk.-Pur., xxxiv, 39-41, gives the Brahman, the king, him that is tortured with pain, him that is superior in art or knowledge (vidyādhika), the woman with child, the younger man dragging a load, the dumb, blind, or deaf man, the drunken man, and the crazy man, the man-mad woman (pumçcalī), the enemy, the child, and him that has been cast out of his caste. Cp. Agnipur., p. 596. Āpast., ii, 5, 11.5 ff. gives carts, carriers of loads, the sick, women and such weaker persons, and a man of higher caste. Then he goes on : “ For his own good everyone must give way to boors (açishṭa), those cast out of their caste, the drunk, and the mad.”