[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.c19.99 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.99 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.99 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.99.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.99.1) and wearing costly ornaments and garb.¹ And those women who are ever held in high esteem, watched over, and loved, they, too, fasten on to hunchbacks, the blind, simpletons, dwarfs, and cripples, O divine Rishi, and on to other defective and little-prized men—for women, there is no man in this world they would not go to, O great Muni. And when they cannot come to a man at all, then they even fall on one another ²; for they are not true to their husband. Their nature flutters this way and that, it is hard to serve them; in their meaning hard to grasp as the (sparkling, witty) words of the clever man here on earth—thus women are. The fire has never too many logs, the great sea never too many rivers, death never too many beings of all kinds, and lovely-eyed woman has never too many men. This and other things (of this kind), O divine Rishi, is the secret of all women. So soon as a woman sees a handsome man, her vulva becomes moist. Even if their own husband grants all their wishes, even if he does what is dear to their heart, and shelters them, yet women cannot bear him. Not the richest enjoyment of their wishes, not ornaments, nor protection and home do they hold in so high esteem as favour and satisfaction in the pleasure of love. The god of death, the wind, death, the underworld, the ever-burning entrance to hell, the knife-edge, poison, snake, and fire—women are all these in one. ### [v2.c19.99.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.99.2) Ever since the five elements have been, and the worlds have been made by the Maker, ever since men and women were made,—ever since then these faults have been in women, O Nārada.” Yudhishṭhira spoke: “Men here in the world cling ever to women, ridden by a frenzied delusion brought about by the gods, and women in the same way to men; that lies before our eyes, and the world is a witness to it. And now a torturing uncertainty goes through my heart. Whence is it that men have the inclination towards them, and under what conditions¹ do women take fire and grow cold again? And how can the fair under these circumstances be watched over by a man? Tell me, pray, of this. For while they are themselves going to love, they deceive men here, and no man gets free of them that has fallen into their hands. As cows fall on new grass, so they are ever doing to a new man. The arts of deception (māyā) that Çambara, the arts of deception that Namuci, that Bali and Kumbhīnasi wielded, these all women understand. They laugh with them that laugh, and weep with them that weep, and him that is unfriendly they catch with friendly speech, all through the hand of fate. Untruth they call truth, and so truth they call untruth. Mainly for the mind of woman, I think, were the political books of doctrine drawn up by Bṛhaspati and the other most excellent men.² If women are held in honour by men, their heart is false towards them, and if they are repulsed, their heart is false. ### [v2.c19.99.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.99.3) And yet we have been told that these creatures are virtuous. What man could watch over them? . . .” Bhīshma gives this recital of woman’s wickedness his strongest assent, and tells an old legend: In times gone by men were so virtuous that they became gods of their own accord. Then a great fear came over the gods. They went in their distress to the father of the world, and he now made the witch-like women, so that they should mislead the men; for in the beginning there were only good women on earth. The bad ones, the evil magical beings, came into being through this creation, and Brahma gave them as their inheritance these roaming wishes, a bed, a seat, ornament, base nature, an evil tongue, and lust.¹ Then Bhīshma tells him the old legend of Vipula and his teacher's wife, and makes the very reasonable conclusion: “Both things can be seen in them : good and bad. The good women, the so glorious ones, are deemed the mothers of the world, and it is they who keep our earth in being with its forests and groves.” The wicked and evil-bringing ones, however, can be known by marks. They love no man, not even him with whom they unite,² and are evil witches. Them a man must shun (xiii, 38-43). --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.99](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c19.99) · Pramāṇa