Sexual Life In Ancient India

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From the Jacket: The present book provides the reader with the most faithful and valuable account of the life of woman from maidenhood to adolescence, and also of the relations of the sexes and the concepts underlying those relations that prevailed in India about fifteen hundred years back. This vivid account is based upon the immense mass of material embedded in the vast Sanskrit literature, especially the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, whereof it makes a liberal use. The book contains twenty-two chapters divided into two parts bound in a single volume. These deal with woman in all her stages of life, in pleasure and grief, in war and peace and describe her accomplishments as the ideal woman, her position, rank, importance, worth, nature, power etc.We find herein, for the first time some interesting and instructive directives on the pleasures of sex, venal love, Man's sexual continence and kindred issues of sexual life.

Contents:

Part One

Editor's Instruction

I - THE MAID

a. The daughter is unwelcome
b. The daughter is beloved and happy
c. The spoiled daughter
d. The good daughter
e. The fallen maiden and her sorrow
f. Maidenhood restored or unscathed in sexual intercourse
g. High esteem set on maidenly purity
h. The fair one with determination in things of love

II - MARRIAGE: TO WHOM AND HOW IS THE MAIDEN TO BE MARRIED?

a. The father's (the kinsfolk's) right to marry away the daughter
b. The father's duty to marry his daughter 
c. The different kinds of marriage
d. To whom shall the daughter be given?
e. What makes the marriage and the promise of marriage valid in low?
f. Age, character, and caste of the maiden whom the man must or may wed
g. Division of inheritance among the children of wives from different castes (as also the 
   wife's share), and position of the wives from different castes
h. Marriage by capture
i. The "self-choice" of the maiden (svayamvara)
j. The gandharva marriage
k. Marriage by purchase
l. Marriage between Brahmans and nobles
m. The marriage of younger brother or sister before the elder forbidden
n. Polyandry
o. Heterism
p. Speculation on the true nature of marriage

III - THE WEDDING

a. The festival and usages
b. Wedding-gifts to the bridegroom; dowry to the bride

IV - LIFE IN MARRIAGE

a. Wedlock a necessity for both sexes 
b. High dignity of the estate of father of the household
c. Wedlock especially needful to woman
d. Overcoming unfruitfulness
e. Deputed friendship (especially through Brahmans)
f. The levirate
g. The different kinds of sons 
h. Family life and family happiness
i. Love of parents for the children 
j. Sorrow of the kinsfolk for the dead child 
k. The misfortune of having but one child 
l. Love of children for the parents

V - WOMAN AS MOTHER

a. The high dignity and position of the mother  
b. Behavior when duty towards the mother conflicts with that towards the father
c. Reverence of children towards the mother 
d. Tender love of the mother towards the children

VI - WOMAN IN HER SEXUAL RELATIONS

a. The moral earnestness of the epic (love and wedlock inseparably bound together for the 
   woman)
b. The ritu (the time meet for fertilization) and its high importance. The right and duty
   of coition is founded on it
c. The man then must
d. The woman then will
e. The man's need sent off by bird-post to her that is ready for fertilization
f. Commerce with her that is still unclean strictly forbidden 

VII - THE PLEASURES OF SEX (SURATA)

a. The woman's joy and vigour in the pleasure of love
b. Punishment for disturbing the surata (death during the sexual embrace)
c. The joy of love as a healing herb
d. Means for heightening the powers and heroes in strength of love 
e. Uncleanness of surata
f. Regulation of the pleasure of sex (not in public, not outside the vulva, not by day 
or at certain other times, not with another woman than the wife)
g. Punishment awaiting the lewd man in this life and in the other
h. The dreadfulness of intercourse with the teacher's wife or with a woman of higher caste
i. Other detail: not to look on a naked stranger woman, atonement for nightly pollution,
   a thoughtful hero of chastity, etc

VIII - THE SEXUAL CONTINENCE OF MAN

a. Value of chasity in general 
b. The ascetic's complete sexual denial, its dignity, and power, its difficulty, and the
   means of keeping it
c. The curber of his senses who was seduced by the woman 
d. The ascetic who was set in an orgasm through the sight only of a lovely woman 

IX - THE PLEASURE OF VENAL LOVE: THE PUBLIC WOMAN

a. Prostitution in full flower
b. The harlot a necessity of life; an important part of social life; she accompanies
   in war, the hunt, and other diversions
c. The woman of pleasure as an ornament to the festival, escort of honour for and attendant
on the important guest
d. Condemnation of the venal woman

Part Two

X - LOVE

a. In the epic, too, there are splendid poems on love
b. Tales of the man's romantic love (Cantanu and Satyavati, Samvarana and Tapati, Ruru
   and Pramadvara)  
c. The love romance of the giant maiden hidimba
d. Rama's love lament and sorrow for the lost sita
e. Bhima's chivalry towards draupati (his search for the golden flower, his revenge
   on kicaka, etc.)
f. The wild and heedless love life of the man (the woman only a booty, the holy man as
   host of love, wife robbery and the ministering to pleasure among the gods, the
   enjoyment of many 
   woman the man's ideal, the rewarding of virtue with woman in heaven
g. Places and opportunity for love (parks, woods, picnics)
h. Arousing love: -
(i)   Heady drink, and festival and sacrificial feasts enlivened by it, the
      unabashed participation of woman in the joys of drinking, the amorous effects
      of intoxication in woman.
(ii)  The things of nature (spring glories, beauties of nature, forest, bird-song,
      wind, etc.)
(iii) Love-charms
i. Love is the highest good
j. Love is all-powerful and does away with responsibility
k. It robs of shame and virtue
l. It is the root of pain and death
m. It must be enjoyed in moderation 
n. Macrobiotic rules for love and marriage 
o. Love must be on both sides and is given to the person present
p. The woman in love goes to the tryst in the man's house
q. Explanation of the concept, phallolatry, and some erotic detail 

XI - WOMAN AS WIFE

a. Character and praise of the true wife
b. "The dignity of woman"-the lofty and hard task of the woman 
c. The faithful wife stands above the holy penitent
d. She can work miracles
e. She has her reward in the beyond 
f. The stern demand of the wife (the husband the only the low for the wife)
g. Examples of exacting husband
h. Examples of wives who find it too much
i. Three examples of wifely faithfulness

XII - WOMAN AS CHILD-BEARER: THE ORIGIN OF MAN, PHYSIOLOGICALLY AND METAPHYSICALLY

a. Physiologically origin and discharge of the male seed
b. Metaphysics of procreation and fetus formation:
(i)  The relation and action of the reincarnated soul and the karman
(ii) The action of matter (prakriti)
c. Physiological origin and stages of growth of the womb's fruit
d. Origin of the senses and their instruments
e. The continuous change in all element of the human organism 
f. Woman the causes of the protection and of the samsara
g. Which parts of the body come from the father, which from the mother, and whom do
   the children, take after?
h. Influence on the character through unlawful begetting, and the fivefold way where
   by gods can beget 
i. Pregnancy and cases of its extraordinarily long period
j. Condemnation of pregnancy in too early years, and of foetusslaying 
k. Pregnancy of the woman
l. Generation aequivoca
m. Tales of changes in sex

XIII - WOMAN LYING IN

a. Her uncleanness, and the demons dangerous to her and the child
b. Means for warding off harmful influences and powers

XIV - WOMAN IN THE HOUSE

a. The spiteful holy man, and the equally so cooking-pot
b. The canonization of the careful cooking woman (the "supernatural flow of time"
   and "the feet in the fire"
c. The house-mother must keep order
d. Is the mistress of the house?
e. The beautiful relation between daughter-in-low and mother-in-low

XV - THE WIDOW AND HER BITTER LOT

a. Her material position
b. A fresh marriage forbidden
c. "Widowhood is the greatest sorrow"
d. Widow-burning   
e. Dead husband, brother, etc. magically seen once more
f. Intercourse and children begotten with the dead husband

XVI - WOMAN IN MISFORTUNE AND IN SORROW

a. Draupadi's grief at Arjuna's going away
b. Kunti's sorrow when her sons go off into banishment
c. The women's lament for those fallen in battle
d. Sita's sorrow when she believes Rama dead 
e. Her wifely love and shut heart at Rama's banishment 
f. Her suffering and heroism in captivity

XVII - THE IDEAL WOMAN

a. Sita, Savitri, etc.
b. Composite picture of the character of the pattern woman 
c. Beauty (catalogue of the women's bodily attraction, their importance for the
   owner's happiness)

XVIII - THE WOMAN OF ENERGY

a. The woman is the east and particularly in India is stronger-willed and more
   passionate than the man, above all in the business of love
b. The passionate and strong-willed Draupadi
c. Kunti fierily spurring on (the words of vidula)
d. The ambitious and revengeful goddess

XIX - POSITION, RANK, AND IMPORTANCE OF WOMAN

a. Her share in important things
b. Women's rule in the state
c. The wife goes, too, to the fight, the hunt, etc.
d. Woman and the festival: amusement and diversions of the woman 
e. Women's journeying
f. The harem or polygamy: -
(i)   Polygamy is right for the man, wrong for the woman 
(ii)  Duties of the man with many wives (the partial moon)
(iii) The passed-over wife of the polygamist (Kaucalya, Devayani and her son)
(iv)  Enmity between wives 
(v)   The sorrow of the wife when another is taken
(vi)  Harem life in town and camp
g. The watch over woman, and how but one in the world has been kept from evil
   by another man 
h. The treatment of woman: -     
(i)   She must be lovingly cherished and cared for by the man
(ii)  The husband must not let himself be kept by the wife
(iii) The dreadfulness of woman slaying 
(iv)  The woman must not be beaten, handled badly, nor forced
(v)   On lying to woman and deceiving them
(vi)  Various rules for behavior towards woman 
(vii) The woman in sulks 

XX - THE WORTH AND NATURE OF WOMAN

a. "Honour woman " who are the springs of happiness 
b. Woman is the essence of all evil
c. Is insatiable in the joys of love, and always unchaste
d. Is full of falsehood and trickery 
e. Bad woman are made that heaven shall not be over-filled
f. Woman is changeable, does not love at all, etc.
g. Is evil and sorrow 
h. Is ill-tempered and quarrelsome
i. Is ruthlessly curious
j. Is compassionate, at least often
k. Can be redeemed

XXI - WOMAN IS A CHATTEL

a. Woman (girls) as gifts and fees for sacrifice  
b. Woman (the daughter) gives so as to save on self
c. The yielding up of the daughter or the wife to Brahmans as a highly
   meritorious deed
d. The satisfaction of the guest's need of sex (through slave-woman, daughter, wife);
   "the man that overcome death
e. The wife for one's friend
f. The wife as property
g. The wife's adultery is an offence against property, is therefore punished by
   the husband
h. Rama's treatment of the supposedly besmirched Sita
i. Woman, the wife also, can easily be got, is an unimportant object of the
   senses

XXII - THE POWER OF WOMAN

a. Influence of the woman on war and peace
b. Wherein lies woman's power? (Tears, smiles, attractive wiles, etc., qualities
   of character)
c. How does the woman ensure the love and devotion of her husband ? (Magic, pious
   works, the right bearing towards her husband)
d. The might of woman's beauty
e. Woman overcomes even the savage giant (the inseparable demon-brother Sunda
   and Upasunda)
f. The woman and the innocent forest youth (Rishyacringa)

Appendix: Additions and Corrections

Index