Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.107

v2.c20.107

I must further stress the point that Lüders in his criticism is beside the mark. My translation is enough to show that the account in the MBh. is not at all such a contradictory jumble as this learned man believes. Moreover Lüders, to all seeming, has not seen the delightful humour running through the MBh. version. The shaggy forest-bear in Vibhāṇḍaka, and his simple holiness is deliberately stressed. What a contrast on the one hand with the young man's tender love woes, and on the other with the harlot's cunning! She herself, therefore, probably has to thank above all a calculated artistry for the part she plays, which originally belonged to Śāntā; and for the later Hindu, too, the thing could thus be made far more piquant. The humour now becomes irresistible in the contrast between the real character and life of the delightful new-comer, and the innocent youth's idea of him. It is capital there, too, how the virtuous and simple hermit goes looking for the devil in the forest for three days, and then through this very thing loses his son to him. This account thus shows a refined art; whether also a lower age at the same time is a question in itself. One of the lists, so beloved in India, of holy men who are led away by women is given in Buddhacaritaṃ, iv, 16-20. In it Ṛiśyaśṛiṅga is also given, and Śāntā as his conqueror.