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LIFE IN ANCIENT INDIA
PROSTITUTES Then there were prostitutes who entered the residence of the Samanas during night and invited them to enjoy sexual intercourse Sometimes the monks were forced to tie them and keep them there overnight and set them free in the morning. If the prostitutes made a case with the king, the monks had to appear in the court for self-defence. 48
WOMEN Then we come to women. Throughout the Jain texts the Jain monks are warned not to have any association with women It is stated that as a pot filled with lac thrown into fire melts quickly and is destroyed, so the monks are lost through association (sa mvāsa) with women 49 A woman is compared to a poisoned thorn and the monks are instructed to avoid a woman even if her hands and feet are cut off and her ears and nose mutilated."
But it was no easy matter to have a thorough control over one's sex instinct. After all the monks had to come in contact with women-folk They had to go out begging alms to them and preaching them religion If a monk was living singly, there were chances of his breaking the law and falling into the snares of women Sometimes the monks lived together with householder's, when the householder's wives, daughters, daughtersin-law, nurses and slave girls approached them and requested them to indulge in sexual intercourse with them so that they might have a strong and illustrious son. The Sūyagadanga beautifully describes a nionk, who, being absorbed by the passion towards a woman, became subject to her. Afterwards thc woman scolds him, lifts her foot, and tramples on his head, saying "O monk, if you will not live with me as a woman who has still her hair, I shall tear it out; but do not live separated from mc " Then she asks the monk to bring wood to cook vegetable, to paint her feet, to rub her back, to get clothes, food, drink, perfume, collyriumbox, ornaments, powders, oils, pills, lipsalve, umbrella, slippers, comb, ribbon, looking-glass, tooth-brush and various other articles for use If the woman got pregnant she ordered her husbands like slaves to fulfil her cravings. If a child was born to her, she asked the monk to hold the baby, and getting up in the night they both lulled the baby to sleep like nurses, and, though they are ashamed of themselves, they washed the clothes of the baby like washerfolk 58
A number of monks are mentioned who fell into the snares of women We have already seen how the monk Rahanemi fell in love with
* 49 50
52
Ibrd, 4.4923-25, also Sūya 4 1 2 , also cf Dhammapada 4 , II, p 201 Süya. 4 1 27 Ibid, 4 1.11 Das. Sū 8 66. Acá II. 2 1 294, p 332 f; cf Vinaya (III 134) where sexual union with a Bhelku
is recommended as a remedy for sterility or a means to procure a son or the husband's love. 4.2.
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