Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.29

v2.c20.29

But property is what the woman is ; he that takes away from another his married darling takes away his property (vasu) ; he is freed from this sin if for a year he undertakes the mortification appointed for Brahman-murder (xii, 35.25 ; cp. 35.24). The owner can naturally do what he likes with his own, and this principle is, indeed, still applied to the woman also, in all its meaning, among many peoples and tribes. It is found juridically in the India of the Epic also. But nobler views on woman, a high position for the woman in esteem and her activities, which was really to be found, in the upper classes of the population at least, and a finer, purer ethic were alive. Here the already discussed Dyūtaparvan is instructive. Yudhishṭhira in the dice-game, having lost all his other possessions, first stakes his brothers, with an unwilling regret, it is true, beginning with the youngest, then himself, and finally, on his opponent's challenge, his wife—and her with the utmost, most matter of fact cold-bloodedness in the world ; indeed, he goes on in a long speech to praise her charms and gifts, as a slave-dealer might praise the beauty and accomplishments of his stock of women. The assembly of men has up to now calmly looked on ; there is no sound or gesture of disapproval. But so soon as the " wretched excrescence " Yudhishṭhira thus yields up Draupadī, it is: "Shame, shame ! "; the voices of the old men were raised from the hall (sabhya). The gathering in the hall was deeply moved ; sorrow and pain came over the princes ; the sweat broke forth from Bhīshma, Droṇa, Kṛpa, and the others. Vidura held his head in his hands, and was as one forsaken by life ; with bowed face he sat there in anxious, gloomy thoughts, and breathed heavily.