Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c21.80

v2.c21.80

P. 471, middle. Here we give a few more details throwing light on the life and standing of woman in the Epic. v, 59 = K., 47.17 ff. relates: Saṃjaya is led to Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna in the women’s part of the dwelling. There the two heroes are sitting, splendidly adorned and bewreathed, drunk with sweet intoxicating drink, both on a great golden seat, adorned with precious stones, and bespread with many kinds of rugs; Kṛṣṇa is using the lap of his wife Satyabhāmā as a pillow, and his feet are lying on the lap of his friend Arjuna. (So K. According to B., Arjuna’s feet are resting on Draupadī’s and Satyabhāmā’s lap.) The envoy Saṃjaya now brings forward his most weighty business of state. This voluptuous Eastern picture, however, probably comes from a later time. In any case this section does not belong to the older body of the poem. Adhy. 49-61, which arouse suspicion at once from the much too woeful and effeminate words of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, have been put in at some time or other. If we reject this whole set of çlokas, and go at once from the triṣṭubhs in 48 to the triṣṭubhs 62.1 ff., then we get a smoothly running recital. Another proof is the unskilful tacking on in the last çl. of 61: Dhṛtarāṣṭra is made out to have spoken earlier, but it was Duryodhana! v, 67.1 ff. is more pleasing: Gāndhārī at Saṃjaya’s request is called into the sabhā, when the decision is to be taken as to war or peace with the Pāṇḍavas. Then too in ii, 58.26 ff.: Yudhishṭhira and his friends have come to Hāstinapura to dice. First of all they greet Gāndhārī, and only then King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, her husband. They are welcomed by all the Kauravas, and called upon in their temporary abode, and this with Draupadī and the other women there. The daughters-in-law of Dhṛtarāṣṭra also come, and are vexed at Kṛṣṇa’s loveliness. The heroes first converse with the ladies, then they enjoy themselves with bodily exercises. If this description so far reminds us of knighthood’s days, on the other hand we are told that it is an honour for the woman if a stranger asks of her, who asks no questions, her name, family, husband, etc. (iii, 265.4-5). But how often this honour is done to the fair in Old India is shown countless times in the Epic. Thus King Jayadratha, who is on the way to the Çalvas to find a bride there, sees Draupadī in the forest, is quite lost, now wants her only, and without further ado sends a king from among his followers to find out more about her. As a woman dwelling there alone she should really not have spoken to this messenger, but she does so, first, because no one else is there to speak with him, and secondly, because the messenger is not unknown to her. She therefore invites them all to enjoy Yudhishṭhira’s hospitality (iii, 266). But Jayadratha carries her off, her that is already wedded. Since we find an offence of this kind now and then only appearing as such if the woman is unwilling (or does not love the man carrying her off, akāmā, ii, 45.10; cp. note 1, p. 490), so this, just like the commandment which holds for the maiden-lifter, to leave her alone who loves elsewhere, is an indication that the woman’s inclination had something to say. A maiden taken in the fight must be left alone a full year before she is asked (as to marriage, doubtless). xii, 96.5. But intimacies before marriage are looked on as shameful (iv, 72 : esp. 4-7). In the marrying of a child, particularly a daughter, the mother in Indian literature as a whole has an important, not seldom the first, voice; and the men in the Epic take counsel, as so often on other important things, so especially on this, with the wife.