Shravakachar of Vasunandini

Author(s): Signe Kirde
Publisher: Signe Kirde

Page 73

5.2
Catalogue of Vices
5 TRANSLATION: ŚR (57-205)
The Fault of Attachment to Other Men's Wives (para-'tthi-gamanadosa)
112) A stupid man who has observed another man's wife and is driven by desire, earns something evil, nothing else.
• datthūna For lack of self-control with respect to women see for in
stance the following examples: Amitagati's Subhāṣita-ratna-samdoha, chapter XXXI; No.1 in Hertel 1922; the commentary on Yt, chapter VII (Handiqui 1949:426-427); the legend of Yama and Chāyā in
Amitagati's Dharma-pariksa XV.66-95:182-187. 113-114) He sighs, cries, and implores (her). He strikes his own head, falls down on the bottom of the earth: a man who is not able to attain the wife of somebody else also tells lies in order to charm the birds out of the trees
He ponders: "Does she long for me, or not", "What devices are suitable to court her]?" "Should I speak to somebody else, or not?". These are [his) permanent sorrows.
115-116) [The man who wants to enjoy somebody else's wife never attains sweetness. Moreover, sleep does not come to him, he remains tortured by desire.
Having given up modesty, the duties of his family, having exposed himself to the enjoyment of liquor, he begins to court them (other men's wives), though he is not aware of their feelings.
• para-mahilānam cittam amunamto patthanam kuņai Vasunan
din characterises the mental suffering of the man who wants to have sexual intercourse with somebody else's wife. He does not find pleasure in anything. He does not even enjoy sweet dishes. Having lost shame, the sense of honour for the family, and having taken alcohol, he begins romantic relationships without understanding the minds of the wives
of other men (Prof. Balbir, p.c.). 117-118) When they married women are not willing to i.e. to make love), he takes also to the device of hundreds of flatteries. But, being rebuked by them again, he becomes weak and stays in a depressed mood.
Alas, if a man enjoys somebody else's wife who is unwilling to make love with him), after having seized her with violence, how could there be happiness? On the contrary, what he earns is suffering.