Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c21.69

v2.c21.69

lord of the bhūta, the ghosts of the dead that grant the blessing of children, and also do harm to them (xii, 122.34). His names also may point to the phallus: Skanda, “the springer”, taken from the spurting seed; Kumāra, “the boy” (as our old German story-tellers call the man’s member); Guha, “the hidden one”. Indeed, Çiva, who is of the same nature as he, is called Praskanda, Bindu, and Visarga as a discharge of the seed (xiii, 17.63). The following also, among other things, seems to point in the same direction: Skanda’s wife is called Shashṭhī and Sinīvalī, both being godheads of fruitfulness and birth (iii, 229.50 ff.; 232.6); he is kanyābhartar (husband of girls?), and has everything in red (clothing, banner, etc., 229.2, 32; 231.19, 93); his creature and plaything is the sexually lusty cock, which often is found as a symbol of fertility (225.24-25; 226.14-15; 229.33; 232.16). On Skanda much that is important is furthermore given in ix, 44-46. But I am thinking of bringing out a separate work, “Die Kindlifresser”. Here, therefore, I give only a few suggestions.