Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.1

v2.c20.1

As our old, splendid Freidank says, in woman the greatest and the loveliest and the ugliest are found side by side; no man can be so good as the woman, but then, too, none so bad as she.¹ In somewhat these words the views as a whole of the Old Indian Epic, too, might be summed up. But no matter how high or how low the various sayings, discussions, and tales set women, and no matter how important a meaning women may have had in the life and the business of life of the Indian world of those days—the fundamental view, even as yet seldom outlived, in the history of human development throughout the world, is not found lacking in the Old Indian Epic either: Woman is a Chattel (e.g. iv, 68.32; 72.26).² As the booty of war woman has an attraction, indeed, in all times and ages.³ Therefore xii, 131.8 advises: