Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c21.71

v2.c21.71

The Rākshasas likewise are among the ghostly figures of the dead, and like the Yakshas, with whom in Buddhistic literature especially they are near akin, among the genii of fruitfulness. Also the Gandharvas, so important for women’s life and for conception, really represent, according to Schroeder’s account, the souls of the departed (*Die Wurzeln der Sage vom heil. Gral*, p. 84, and passages there quoted). Cp. in J. J. Meyer, *Über das Wesen d. altind. Rechtsschriften u. ihr Verhältnis zu einander u. zu Kauṭilya* (Leipz., 1927), the passages given under “gandharva”. But in view of the original singular this is probably hardly the older belief. Anyhow, the Gandharvas (or: the Gandharva) are indeed found as the possessors of woman before marriage, and undoubtedly causing fruitfulness, just like the moon (Soma), the “lord of plants” or god of growth (and houser of the blessed), and like the fire god—this last probably here as life-bringing warmth, as a form of Kāma or the genius of Love, hardly as Agni of the hearth and warden of the ṛta, which binds the daughter to the father’s house. Cp. my notes on pp. 227 and 312.