INDIA
India is a spacious land of astounding contrasts and variations. It is a
land of mystery and mysticism, and at the same time it investigates
reality with infinite patience. It is a land of diversified, age-old
cultures, and its ancient university at Taxila in the Punjab ante-dated
the Hellenic Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum by long centuries. Yet it
has had and still has illiterate villages, where legends and sagas of
antique doings are still transmitted orally. It is a continent of
abundant wealth, and its maharajas and princelings and emperors have
been resplendent in golden raiment, exultant in their treasure houses
where lakhs of rupees lie heaped alongside rubies and emeralds, diamonds
and pearls, and a dozen other varieties of precious stones, almost
beyond human reckoning and evaluation. Yet, within this very century,
children have stood at lonely wayside stations, from Bombay to
Rawalpindi, in the Punjab and in Bengal, in the North West Frontier and
in Madras Presidency, clamoring for roti and pani, bread and water. It
is a land of lavish fertility, and a land of recurrent famine and
devastation. A land of hieratic formalities and a land of innovation.
India is a country of artistic achievements of the highest order, of
profound philosophical speculation, of monumental poetic and literary
production. It is dedicated to things of the spirit, yet its Kali craves
blood. It clings adhesively to remote traditions, to ethnic and
religious mores, to indurated social ways. Yet it forges ahead, eager to
maintain itself in the forefront of industrial expansion. It maintains
old domestic and communal demarcations and rigidities, yet it welcomes
the novelties, the mutations of this restless age. It is dedicated to
intellectual, cosmological meditation, yet it probes into sexual
manners, into the characteristics of lust and passion, and all the
secretive unspoken intimacies of carnality. It has practically made a
monopoly of texts and treatises on the subject of love and all its
darker and more intricate and subtle manifestations. It is a country
that has produced, in this field, six of the major manuals, poetic
eulogies or expositions, dealing with the forms and practices of
Aphrodite Pandemos.
The Ratirahasya, variously called the Koka Shastra, was the work of the
poet Kukkoka. It consists of some eight hundred verses on love
techniques.
The Ananga-Ranga, also called Kamaledhiplava, was written by the poet
Kullianmull, and belongs in the fifteenth or sixteenth century A.D. The
contents describe factually and realistically the physical
characteristics of various types of women, their deportment, dress,
facial and bodily traits, their amatory responsiveness, together with
certain principles that establish objective amatory criteria.
The Rasmanjari was the work of the poet Bhanudatta. It classifies men
and women according to personal behavior, age, physical type.
The Smara Pradipa, consisting of some four hundred verses, expounds
amatory laws or tendencies. It was the work of the poet Gunakara.
The Ratimanjari is a brief poetic exposition on love, whose author was
the poet Jayadeva.
The Panchasakya is considerably longer, and is divided into five Arrows.
The author was Jyotirisha.
Woman, in these treatises and poetic elaborations and expositions, is
the central theme, and her physical traits, ideally considered, and the
elements that, cumulatively, constitute her dominant attraction, are
minutely and imaginatively depicted: the texture of the skin, the shape
of the moon face, the coloring of the hair, the brightness of eye are
measured and defined in relation to cosmic phenomena, to flowers, to the
lotus, to the mustard blossom, to the lily and the fawn, and, above all,
her devoutness is stressed, and her impassioned worship of the Hindu
pantheon, the totality of the deities.
The Kama Sutra is an extended exposition of love and its procedures and
manipulations, in some 1200 verses divided into sections in which
various aspects and techniques in amatory mores are treated.
And, like The Perfumed Garden and similar Oriental excursions into
sexual activities, it diffuses an aura of religiosity, a solemn sense of
reverence, a divine acknowledgment. The tone is frank without prurience:
the elaborate classifications and injunctions are minute and lucid
without introducing an undercurrent, however unobtrusive, of deliberate
and gross scurrilities. It is not libidinous, then, in intent, for the
author himself, a profoundly contemplative religious devotee, adumbrated
his work, not as a salacious and lewd inducement to debauchery, but as
an exposition of the physiological man who, while making concessions in
conformity with certain established amatory principles, may yet
transcend his carnal desires and, instead of being enslaved by his
erotic lusts, may become master of them and use them under due control,
but never without restraint and a kind of Hellenic and Aristotelian
moderation, a physiological aurea mediocritas.
The floruit of the author of the Kama Sutra has not been determined
definitively. It has been variously assigned between the first and the
sixth century A.D.
The entire work is pervaded by the three Hindu concepts of Dharma,
goodness or virtue, in the Greek sense, Artha, which is wealth, and
Kama, sensual pleasure.
The range of topics covers normal and abnormal conditions and practices:
wedded love and fellatio, public harlotry and transvestism, courtship
and the frenzies of passion, the behavior of wives during a husband’s
absence, the artifices of feminine conquest, osculation and amatory
permutations, the employment of an intermediary, the ways of the
courtesan, and, finally, personal adornment, tonic medicines, methods of
exciting desire.
In respect of the latter, there are various recipes involving oils,
unguents, and juices. One unguent that has amatory appeal is composed of
tabernamontana coronaria, costus speciosus, and flacourtia cataphracta.
Another aid is oil of hogweed, echites putrescens, the sarina plant,
yellow amaranth, and leaf of nymphae. This salve is applied to the body.
Let the man eat the powder of the nelumbrium speciosum, the blue lotus,
the mesna roxburghii, together with clarified butter, which is ghee, and
honey.
The bone of a peacock, or of a hyena, covered with gold and fastened on
the right hand, has an exciting effect.
Similarly with a bead made from the seed of the jujube or a conch shell,
that is enchanted by magic spells and then fastened on the hand.
A mixture of powders of white thorn apple, black pepper, long pepper,
and honey is reputedly a means of female subjugation.
So with an ointment made of the emblica myrabolens plant.
A drink of milk and sugar, the pipar chaba, liquorice, and the root of
the uchchata plant is an invigorating agent.
A liquid consisting of milk mixed with juice of the kuili plant, the
hedysarum gangeticum, and the kshirika plant is likewise a stimulant.
A drink of a paste consisting of asparagus racemosus, the guduchi plant,
the shvadaushtra plant, long pepper, liquorice: boiled in milk, ghee,
and honey, and taken in the spring time.
A man who plays on a reed pipe smeared with juices of the bahupadika
plant the costus arabicus, the euphorbia antiquorum, the tabernamontana
coronaria, the pinus deodora, the kantaka plant, and the vajfa plant
will effect female subjugation.
A camel bone, dipped into the juice of the eclipta prostata, then
burned, and pigment from the ashes placed in a box made of camel bone,
and applied to the eyelashes with a camel bone pencil are also a means
of subjugation.
A drink of boiled clarified butter, in the morning, in the spring time,
is equally effective.
A drink of asparagus racemosus and the shvadaushtra plant, with pounded
fruit of premna spinosa, in water.
A drink composed as follows: The covering of sesame seeds, soaked in
sparrows’ eggs: boiled in milk, with ghee and sugar, with fruit of the
trapa bispinosa and the kasuriki plant: with the addition of flour of
beans and wheat.
Vigor is increased by a brew consisting of rice, with sparrows’ eggs:
boiled in milk, together with honey and ghee.
The Kama Sutra suggests that the means of arousing vigor may also be
learned from medicine, from the Vedas, and from adepts in Magic. Nothing
that may be injurious in its effects, however, should be employed, only
such means as are holy and recognized as good.
* * * * *
Other stimulants that are known to the Hindu manuals of erotology
include the following:
The anvalli nut is stripped of its outer shell. The juice is then
extracted. It is dried in the sun and subsequently mixed with powdered
anvalli nut. The paste is eaten with ghee, honey, and candied sugar.
* * * * *
A compound of hog plum, eugenia jambreana, and flowers of the nauclia
cadamba. These items are all indigenous to India, as are so many of the
ingredients mentioned in the Indian treatises. In many cases, however,
the plants and fruits, herbs and extracts are not unknown and are
available in the Occident.
To gain amatory acquiescence and supremacy over the person desired, the
following Hindu preparation is recommended: A few pieces of arris root
are mixed with mango oil. They are then placed in an aperture in the
trunk of the sisu tree. The pieces are left thus for some six months, at
which time an ointment is compounded, reputedly effective in a genital
sense.
* * * * *
The lotus, jasmine, and the asoka plant are in the opinion of Hindu
erotologists provocative of venery. With respect to the lotus, this
plant is associated with the ideal feminine personality, supreme
pulchritude and perfection symbolized by the Lotus Woman.
Hemp contains elements productive of sexual stimuli. In Hindu erotology,
the leaves and seeds of the plant are chewed in this expectation. On
occasion, the seeds are mixed with other ingredients: ambergris, sugar,
and musk: all of which are credibly of aphrodisiac quality.
An infusion of hemp leaves and seed capsules is drunk as a liquor.
An extract of hemp, much used in India, is charas, which is both smoked
and eaten. Botanically, hemp is the plant Cannabis Indica, from which
are produced over 150 drug preparations.
* * * * *
An Indian plant named bhuya—kokali and, in botanical terminology,
solanum Jacquini, is credited with erotic properties. The juice is
extracted and dried in the sun. This is then mixed with ghee, candied
sugar, and honey, and taken as a potion.
* * * * *
Calamint, an aromatic herb, was used in India as an amatory excitant.
* * * * *
Chutney, a characteristically Indian relish, is compounded of fruits,
herbs, and seasonings. Apart from its culinary use, chutney is
considered a sensual stimulant.
* * * * *
Erotic ingenuities have devised variations in physiological relations.
The Arab erotologist the Sheikh Nefzawi, in his _The Perfumed Garden_,
alludes to this ingenuity in the case of Indian practices, where
twenty-nine possible forms of intimacy were in vogue.
* * * * *
An eye-salve called collyrium was known among the Romans as, apart from
its ophthalmological virtue, a sexual aid. Collyrium was so considered
in India too, where it was also credited with possessing magic qualities
that were applicable to erotic manifestations.
* * * * *
Macabre concoctions have been the stock in trade of the dispensers of
philtres and excitants in all ages among all races. A prescription that
is urged in Hindu erotological literature runs as follows: A compound
consisting of flowers thrown on a corpse that is being carried to a
burning ghat for disposal: along with a mixture compounded of the
powdered bones of the peacock and of the jiwanjiva bird, and the leaf of
the plant vatodbhranta. A genital application promises, in the opinion
of the Hindu manuals, marked physiological vigor.
* * * * *
Many Oriental treatises on erotology deal with the physiological
characteristics of men and women, temperamental differences, erotic
postures in multiple varieties, and recommendations regarding local
inguinal applications. The topic of potions as such is far less
extensively treated, largely for the reason that the love-potion,
innocuous and effectual, is actually rare. Yet each manual is hopeful
and anticipatory in this respect.
The Ananga-Ranga, of which a French translation appeared in Paris in
1920, in the Bibliothèque des Curieux, was originally composed in
Sanskrit in the sixteenth century by the poet Kalyanamalla. It covers
cosmetic hints and amatory devices, hygienic suggestions, periapts and
incantations designed to attract and retain affection. It discusses the
four major types of women, their personal characteristics, the hours and
days most propitious for intimacy. There are tables and statistics that
go into minute detail on these points. There is a table classifying and
differentiating the seats of passion, the erotogenic areas. There are
several pages of tables that expound different types of embrace with
different types of partners. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is
omitted. The text marches forward, with confidence and a sense of
authority, from the uprising of the libido to the ultimate consummation.
The characteristics of men, their physiological frame, their capacities
are evaluated, with a remarkable substantiation of tables and statistics
and measurements. The temperaments of women are reviewed with equal
thoroughness, and the regions of India are considered geographically and
erotically in relation to this topic.
Aphrodisiacs, both external and internal, are treated: drugs and charms,
magic unguents, fascinating incense, incantations and invocations.
An external application runs thus: Shopa or anise seed, that is, anethum
sowa, reduced to a powder. An electuary is made with honey. This
application, according to the Ananga-Ranga, promises effective results.
* * * * *
Or, Take Asclepias gigantea. Crush and beat in a mortar with leaves of
jai, until the juice has been extracted. This too is an external
application.
* * * * *
Again: The fruit of the Tamarinda Indica; crush in a mortar, with honey
and Sindura.
* * * * *
The seeds of Urid, in milk and sugar. Expose for three consecutive days
to the sun. Then crush to a powder. Knead into cake form. Fry in ghee.
Eat this concoction every morning.
* * * * *
One hundred and fifty seeds of the inner bark of the Moh tree. Heap in a
mortar and beat. Drink it in cow’s milk.
* * * * *
On a Tuesday, extract the entrails of a blue jay—coracias indica—and put
into the body a little kama-salila. Place the bird in an earthen pot and
cover it with a second pot moistened with mud: keep it in an uncluttered
spot for seven days. At the end of that time take out the contents and
reduce them to a powder. Make pills, and dry them. One pill to be taken
by a man or a woman: that will be sufficient to promote vigor and
libido.
* * * * *
Magic verses will be equally effective: also the chanting of a mantra,
for the efficacy resides in the Devata, the deity therein. Or pronounce
formulas and utter invocations, such as:
Oh Kameshwar, submit this person to my will!
Utter the hallowed and mystic term Om! Mention the name of the woman who
is the object of the passion. Then conclude with Anaya! Anaya!
Pulverize kasturi, which is common musk, and wood of yellow tetu. Mix
with old honey, two months old, and apply genitally.
Sandalwood and red powder of curcuma and alum and costus and black
sandalwood, together with white Vala and the bark of the Deodaru.
Powder, and mix with honey: then allow to dry. This is now Chinta—mani
Dupha: an incense that will promote your efficiency, dominate all
thought, and, according to the promise of the manual, make you master of
the entire universe.
* * * * *
To prepare a powerful and alluring incense, mix equal quantities of
cardamom seeds, oliba, and the plant Garurwel, sandalwood, the flower of
jasmine, and Bengal madder.
* * * * *
Pulverize bombax heptaphyllum: macerate in milk. Then apply the paste to
the face. This will produce amatory reactions.
* * * * *
Take bibva nuts and black salt, leaves of lotus. Reduce to ashes and
soak in solanum Jacquini. Apply with buffalo excrement and the result
will be most favorable.
* * * * *
Mix equal parts of the juice of rosa glanduifera, expressed from the
leaves, and ghee or clarified butter. Boil with ten parts of milk,
sugar, and honey. Drink this concoction regularly. The result will be a
state of active vigor.
* * * * *
Take saptaparna on a Sunday by mouth, with a prospect of renewed vigor.
* * * * *
Soak the seeds of Urid in milk and sugar: dry in the sun for three days.
Reduce the whole to a powder. Knead into cake consistency. Fry in ghee.
Eat this every morning. However old the patient may be, he will acquire
great vigor.
* * * * *
The seeds of white Tal-makhana, macerated in the juice of the banyan
tree. Mix with seeds of karanj and put into the mouth.
* * * * *
Vajikarana. This agent restores strength and physical vigor.
* * * * *
The Ananga-Ranga, like other Oriental erotic manuals, concludes
devoutly: May this treatise, Ananga-Ranga, be dear to men and women, so
long as the sacred River Ganges flows from Siva’s breast with his wife
Gauri by his left side: so long as Lakhmi shall love Vishnu: so long as
Brahma shall be engaged in the study of the Vedas, and so long as the
earth shall endure, and the moon, and the sun.
* * * * *
Curry is especially associated with Indian culinary preparations. It is
a sauce compounded of a variety of spices in varying proportions:
coriander seeds, cumin, ginger, cardamom seeds, turmeric, garlic,
vinegar, and mustard seeds. In addition to its use as a condiment, curry
has been held to possess a stimulative quality.
* * * * *
As a rule when physiological vigor is defective or ineffectual in some
respect, stimulants are advised to remedy the condition. In a contrary
sense, however, when the libido is too intense and too active, a Hindu
recommendation, designed to modify the urgency, consists of a special
application. This application is compounded of the juice of the fruits
of the cassia fistula, eugenia jambolana, in a mixture of powder of
vernonia anthelmentica, the soma plant, the lohopa—jihirka, and the
eclipta prostata: all of these plants being native to India.
* * * * *
The plant botanically designated Emblica Myrabolens, states the Hindu
manual Kama Sutra, is conducive to the vita sexualis, when the plant is
compounded into an ointment.
* * * * *
The same manual, adding a goetic touch to a prescription, asserts the
stimulative value of a bead formed from jujube seed or conch shell, over
which an incantation had been uttered. The bead is attached to the hand.
* * * * *
For a diminution of physiological vigor, or for its total elimination in
an amatory direction, Indian manuals suggested a long, rigid treatment.
It consisted of the daily consumption of young leaves of mairkousi.
Fakirs and other holy men were subjected to this regimen until full
manhood was reached at the age of twenty-five.
* * * * *
Fennel, an aromatic plant, has long been in use in culinary
preparations. It has also a reputation for inspiring energy in an
aphrodisiac sense. In India, it is used for this purpose in the
following form: The juice of the fennel plant is mixed with honey, milk,
sugar, liquorice, and ghee or clarified butter.
This concoction is viewed with a certain religious respect and is
associated with a drink fit for the gods.
* * * * *
Perfumes have at all times been included in the amatory pharmacopoeia.
Among Indian erotologists, perfumed fumigation is considered a powerful
excitant.
* * * * *
In India, ghee, which is clarified butter, is normally used in cookery.
At the same time it is credited with amatory properties. A drink of
boiled ghee, taken in the morning, in the spring time, is among the
erotic recipes of the Hindu treatises.
* * * * *
As a frequent base for love recipes, ginger, which is also commonly used
in the Orient for dietary purposes, is generally present as an amatory
item, and is taken by mouth with pepper, honey, and other spices.
* * * * *
Every natural phenomenon, every product of the fields, whatever dwells
on sea or is hidden underground: all such items have at some time or
other been tested and recommended for their potential contribution to
amatory functions. So even the breeze in spring time has had its
eulogists in Hindu erotology as an amorous inspiration: also the flowers
that are in bud, the songs and twitterings of birds, and the humming
sibilance of bees. Similarly, music was recommended as promotive of
desire. Even, on occasion, the touch of a person, an aroma, a taste, a
sound, a form may stir longings. In a more earthy and domestic sense,
leeks and garlic, beans and onions have been found useful as stimulants.
Some concoctions are merely hinted at, without being given a
nomenclature. Thus an ancient Greek historian is cited by the Greek
encyclopedist Athenaeus himself, in his _Banquet of the Philosophers_,
as authority for a certain Hindu preparation.
When applied to the soles of the feet, it created an immediate and
powerful amatory reaction. But this specific, as so many others, has
faded into oblivion.
* * * * *
The Kama Sutra recommends an ointment compounded thus: Xanthochymus
pichorius, honey, ghee, tabernamontana coronaria, mesna roxburghii,
nelumbrium speciosum, and blue lotus.
Another compound, to be taken by mouth, is blue lotus and powder of the
nelumbrium speciosum, mixed with honey and ghee.
* * * * *
Amatory provocation may be induced by certain powders and ointments made
from the following plants: Costus speciosus, tabernamontana coronaria,
and flacourtia cataphracta, compounded together.
* * * * *
For genital potency, preparations, mechanical devices, electuaries,
unguents, incantations, and brews have been urged in Hindu manuals. In
addition to the variety of ointments herbs, spices, and animal
secretions, surgical operations, hazardous both physiologically and
emotionally, have been gravely prescribed.
* * * * *
An unusual procedure for strengthening vigor involves a mixture that is
to be thrown at the person desired. The mixture is composed of powder of
milk, kantaka plant, and the hedge plant, with the powdered root of the
lanjalika plant and the excrement of a monkey.
* * * * *
A mixture of cowach and honey, along with the pulverized remains of a
dead kite and the prickly hairs of a tropical plant. This is a means of
amatory supremacy.
* * * * *
An application of Lechi, costus arabicus, kanher root, chikana,
gajapimpali, and askhand, pulverized and mixed with ghee.
* * * * *
To strengthen and recover vigor, a drink is prepared as follows: Lechi,
kuili powder, asparagus racemosus, cucumber, and kanta-gokhru: mixed
with milk.
* * * * *
Applications that, in the estimation of the Ananga-Ranga, are of value
as phallic stimulants, include leaves of the jai, rui seed, honey, lotus
flower pollen, Hungarian grass, and anise.
* * * * *
Loha-Bhasma is a preparation of ferrous oxide and is used, according to
Hindu erotologists, as a priapic stimulant.
* * * * *
An herb indigenous to India, known botanically as maerua arenaria, is
considered beneficial in inducing amatory inclination.
* * * * *
Despite Hindu proscriptions against the consumption of meat, meat is
frequently mentioned in Hindu texts as an erotic agent, particularly
red, lean meat.
* * * * *
Arrack is an Indian liquor prepared from the flowers of the Moh tree,
that are rich in sugar content. The Moh tree, botanically Bassia
latifolia, is used in a recipe for physiological renewal. The pith is
pounded and, with cow’s milk, taken as a drink.
* * * * *
In India, opium, that is, papaver somniferum, has been used as a phallic
excitation, although a sixteenth century Dutch traveler, Linschoten, who
was familiar with the East and the West Indies, asserted that it
diminishes the libido.
* * * * *
A phallic application is costus arabicus, powdered raktabol, which is
myrrh, borax, aniseed, and manishil, mixed with oil of sesame.
* * * * *
A lotion of juice of the roots of the madayanlika plant, the anjanika
plant, yellow amaranth, the shlakshnaparni plant, and the clitoria
ternateea.
* * * * *
A help in amatory experimentation is the following: The sprouts of the
vajnasunhi plant are cut into small strips. They are then dipped in a
mixture of sulphur and red arsenic, and dried seven times. The resultant
powder is now burned at night; when the smoke rises, if a golden moon is
observed behind the fumes, success will attend the erotic encounter.
* * * * *
A composition of long pepper, seeds of the plant sanseviera
roxburghiana, and seeds of the plant hedysarum gangeticum, pounded and
mixed with milk.
* * * * *
Various soups are advised, in Hindu erotology, as strengthing
ministrants. Particularly so, soups in which the ingredients are cheese,
or fish, or celery, or mushrooms, or lentils, or onions.
* * * * *
Dill, which botanically is anthum graveolens, is an Eastern ingredient
for furthering the libido.
* * * * *
To Hindu erotologists, all amatory acts, the cult of the phallus, and
erotic performances, are under the aegis of the triune god Trimurti.
* * * * *
Trapa bispinosa, which is a nut belonging in the water chestnut species,
is frequently used in amatory composition. The paste is prepared from
the seeds or roots of the trapa bispinosa, kasurika, tuscan jasmine, and
liquorice, and a bulb called kshirakapoli. The whole is mixed with milk,
ghee, and sugar: then boiled into a consistency.
* * * * *
Wine, in India, is considered conducive to priapic performance. But
only, as among the Greeks and the Romans and the ancient Hebrews, when
taken in moderation. Otherwise, excessive drinking of wine is an object
of condemnation. A rule in Hindu ritual establishes the criterion of
sufficiency:
So long as the mind’s light flickers not,
For so long drink! Shun the rest!
Whoso drinks still more is a beast.
* * * * *
As a defensive measure against erotic aggressiveness, Hindu erotology
suggests the following procedure. The woman who is the prospective
object of an amatory approach should bathe in the buttermilk of a male
buffalo. The milk is mixed with powder of yellow amaranth, the
banu-padika plant, and the gopalika plant.
* * * * *
Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of an East Indian tree. In addition to
its use as a condiment, cinnamon has been credited with amatory
implications.
* * * * *
The _Atharva Veda_ is a Sanskrit text dealing with thaumaturgic
procedures, magic formulas, incantations, and prescriptions affecting
various emotional circumstances. A magic invocation, intended to excite
feminine passion in a particular woman, runs this:
With the all-powerful arrow of Love do I pierce thy heart, O
woman! Love, love that causes unease, that will overcome thee,
love for me! That arrow, flying true and straight, will cause in
thee burning desire. It has the point of my love, its shaft is
my determination to possess thee!
Yea, thy heart is pierced. The arrow has struck home. I have
overcome by these arts thy reluctance, thou art changed! Come to
me, submissive, without pride, but only longing! Thy mother will
be powerless to prevent thy coming, neither shall thy father be
able to prevent thee! Thou art completely in my power.
O Mitra, O Varuna, strip her of will power! I, I alone, wield
power over the heart and mind of my beloved!
A woman, on the other hand, may secure a man’s love by the following
supplication:
I am possessed by burning love for this man: and this love comes
to me from Apsaras, who is victorious ever. Let the man yearn
for me, desire me, let his desire burn for me! Let this love
come forth from the spirit, and enter him.
Let him desire me as nothing has been desired before! I love
him, want him: he must feel this same desire for me!
O Maruts, let him become filled with love. O Spirit of the Air,
fill him with love. O Agni, let him burn with love for me!
A variant supplication directed toward a similar purpose is the
following, from the same source as the two previous invocations:
By the power and Laws of Varuna I invoke the burning force of
love, in thee, for thee. The desire, the potent love-spirit
which all the gods have created in the waters, this I invoke,
this I employ, to secure thy love for me!
Indrani has magnetized the waters with this love-force.
And it is that, by Varuna’s Laws, that I cause to burn!
Thou wilt love me, with a burning desire.
* * * * *
In its religious traditions, India has affinities with the earliest
known forms of sacred rites, concepts, and views. In Hindu religious
mythology, the cosmic power of creation, of the generative capacity, is
symbolized by the duality of the hermaphrodite, the male and female
intertwined, sharing the properties of each other, representing the
passive and active principles that pervade all Nature.
* * * * *
From the testimony furnished by bas-reliefs in caves such as the Ajanta
caverns, by temple carvings, paintings, and sculptural adornments, the
cult of the lingam, throughout India, appears to date back to a very
remote and undetermined antiquity.
Among certain sects, the supreme power is worshipped in the phallic
form. In wayside lodges, on facades and shrines, the genital figure of
masculine dominance is everywhere on view. In many instances this
omnipresence and insistence of the symbolic phallus assume monstrously
obscene forms and positions, writhing and contorted in erotic frenzy, or
entwined in serpentine coils and performing abominations of the utmost
lubricity in the name and under the aegis of the cosmic creative force.
A remoter but still valid corollary is that the amatory urge derives
from this universal generative process and strives to merge with it and
hence seeks whatever erotic measures and manipulations may be favorable
to such a consummation.
* * * * *
At Benares, Jagannath, and elsewhere in India, the deities of generation
were held in great reverence, and were worshipped, notably by women, who
symbolically, and more frequently actually, consorted with, for
instance, Vishnu, at a nocturnal ceremony during the annual celebrations
held in his honor.
* * * * *
The _Atharva Veda_, the Sanskrit magic text, contains an invocation
whereby a woman appeals for a husband:
I seek a husband. Sitting here, my hair flowing loose, I am like
one positioned before a giant procession, searching for a
husband for this woman without a spouse.
O Aryaman! This woman cannot longer bear to attend the marriages
of other women. Now, having performed this rite, other women
will come to the wedding-feast of hers!
The Creator holds up the Earth, the planets, the Heavens.
O Creator, produce for me a suitor, a husband.
* * * * *
The _Atharva Veda_ also recommends a talisman made from sraktya wood, to
be used in supplication to all the divinities of the Hindu pantheon,
with these words:
And this great and powerful talisman does strike to victory
wherever it is used. It produces children, fecundity, security,
fortunes!
* * * * *
Another Hindu invocation, in the text of the _Atharva Veda_, contains an
amatory appeal for a wife:
I take upon myself strength, strength of a hundred men. I take
up this power in the name of the spirit that comes here, that is
coming, that has come. O Indra, give me that strength!
As the Asvins took Surya, the child of Savitar, to be a bride,
so has destiny said that here shall come a wife for this man!
Indra, with that hook of gold, of power, bring here a wife for
him that desires a wife.