The Complete Kama Sutra by Alain Danielou

Author:Alain Danielou
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781594777967
Publisher: Park Street Press
Published: 2019-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

Part Four

Duties and Privileges of the Wife

[Bhāryā adhikārika]

Chapter One

CONDUCT OF THE ONLY WIFE

Once married to the man, how should the wife behave toward him? This is what is known as the duties and privileges of the wife. According to the situation, the man who possesses the girl either has no other wives, or else has a certain number of other wives dependent on him.

A wife may there fore be of two kinds: the only wife, or wife among others.

We shall first describe the conduct of the only wife.

1 The only wife is totally trusting, considering her husband as a god and completely devoted to him.

If there are other wives, there is a risk of unpleasant situations. It is said that, "The one that feeds them is the women's god, " but this does not concern their physical condition.

A devoted wife (pativratā) puts all her trust in her husband, considering him in her heart as a god. She conforms at all points to his wishes.

2 She takes responsibility for the household, and so on.

With her husband's consent, she takes care of the house. Eschewing the outside world, she involves herself entirely in the household and takes on the domestic tasks.

3 She attends to cleaning the clothes, tidying the rooms, flower arrangements, cleaning the floor, being attractive to look at, performing the three daily rites of offering to the gods and of worshiping them at their domestic shrine.

She makes the various tasks of cleaning and ordering the house a strict rule. She does the flower arrangements, polishes the floors, while being always pleasant to the eye. She also performs the three daily offerings [in the sacred fire] and worships the gods at the domestic shrine.

4 According to Gonardīya, there is no state happier than the state of marriage.

It all depends on the way of envisaging things.

5 The wife must behave suitably to her husband's elderly parents, servants, his sisters, and their husbands.

She must accept her parents-in-law, her sisters-in-law, and their husbands as her own, and speak to them in a seemly manner.

6 On carefully prepared ground, she must sow aromatic plants [harita] and vegetables [shāka], plant sugarcane [ikshu] in clumps, mustard [sarshapa], cumin [jīraka], ajamod�� [hingu, asafetida], cinnamon [tamāla], fennel [shatapushpa], and small cardamoms [gulma],

Aromatic plants [harita], such as coriander [dhanyāka], ginger [ārdraka], and vegetables [shāka], spinach [palankiya] and others, must be planted in well ordered rows.

Sugarcane [ikshu] is planted in clumps.

7 She must plant on a single plot rows of: āmalaka [myrobalan, Emblica officinalis, gulābāsa], mallika [jasmine, Jasminum sambac ], jātī [Jasminum grandiflorum ], kurantaka [yellow amaranth, Barlerla prionitis nevari ], navamālikā [red jasmine, chameli, Plumeria rubra ], tagara [valerian], nandyavarta [kadamba, Anthocephalus cadamba ], japāgulma [China rose] and other ornamental plants. In the grove of trees, she should also plant: bālakoshīraka [khasha, Saccharum spontaneum ] and pātalika [Stereospermum suavolens ] with abundant blossoms.

8 In the middle of the garden, a well, a reservoir, and a tank must be dug.

9 She must keep beggars out of the way, also wandering Buddhist or Jaina monks, women of bad reputation, mountebanks, and magicians.

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