Nature and Sex in the Classics
Our ancestor’s concept of beauty was somewhat bizarre: bosom too heavy for the slender waist, round buttocks as large as the behind of a maddened elephant in rut …
I have often lamented my countrymen’s indifference to the phenomenon of nature and double standards on matters of sex; outward prudishness combined with inner prurience. This was certainly not so 2,000 years ago. Years back I read Dr Manmohan Ghosh’s translation of Chaturbhani written sometime between 200-350 B.C. – Glimpses of Sexual Life in Nanda Maurya India – and was pleasantly surprised to see the author’s familiarity with the flora and fauna of the region, the explicit and often indelicate reference to sex. Although a long list of dramatis personae appear they are in part long monologues by one man, on courtesans and their patrons as they pass by him on their way to, or returning from, the houses of pleasure. This Vilasakaundini (vessel of coquetry) whose beauty ‘sprinkles the eyes with ambrosia’ becomes like all other women characters even lovelier following ‘fatigue of intercourse’ with swollen lips and scars of violent lust of ‘a festival of amour decorated with scratches of nails.’
‘The blooming lotus is her face, the buds of white flowers are her teeth, fresh blue lilies are her eyes, the red asoka flowers are her throbbing lips, humming of bees is her speech. Best bouquets (of flowers) are her breasts, flowers on the head are her ornament, loose flowers are her garments, and garlands are her shining girdle. The bower range, which is the bride of spring, has assumed indeed a female form by its (various) flowers.’ The hermaphrodite is praised because her breasts do not come in the way of a closer embrace, is not inhibited from sex for certain days in the month as other women are and there is ‘no risk of conception which is an enemy of physical charm and progress of youth’ – whatever that means.
Our ancestor’s concept of beauty was somewhat bizarre: bosom too heavy for the slender waist, round buttocks as large as the behind of a maddened elephant in rut.
And so on. The wife comes off very poorly when compared to the courtesan. ‘Once on the chariot of a courtesan’s hips, who will consciously opt for a married wife?’ demands the author of one of the plays and replies: ‘No one consciously leaves off a chariot to ride in a bullock-cart.’