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CONCEIT OF CONJUGALITY IN TIIE MA1IABIIAHATA 27

hundrcds of womcn marricd wilh childrcn, marricd wilhout a child and virgins.⁶¹ Nccdlcss to say, thcrc was no ąucstion of conjugality wilh ihcse hundrcds of womcn, ihcy wcrc ihcrc for short-lcrm enjoymcnt, performing houschold chorcs, rendering personal scrviecs to ihc inmates of the houschold, aflcr which somc inust havc bccn sold, olhcrs becamc domcslic charwomcn and slill olhers endcd up in brolhcls. The dcvadasls wcrc the olher catcgory of womcn to whom Drahmin priests, kings, and occasionally the noblcs (rtijanyas) had access.

I menlion this to bring to your nolicc the fact that thcsc practiccs of polygamy, gifts of hundrcds of womcn (togelher wilh hundrcds of callle), womcn capturcd in war and as sacrillcial Iccs, madę it virtually impossible for thcsc numerous unforlunaic womcn to havc any conjugal lite at all. And their number was legion.

Conjugality, as the lcxls present it, was thus for the socially rccognized lamilics of all castcs, but the seriptures covcr mainly womcn of the three upper castcs, of somcwhal affluent condilion. It can be surmiscd that they constilulcd a sizcablc scction of the womcn populalion of the community al any givcn point of time. To ihc fourlh bclongcd mlcccha, the śudra, śvapaka, puJkasa and olher unlouehablcs, logelher wilh the gifl-women as sacrillcial fees to priesls, hundrcds of cntcrlainmcnt girls for gucsls al any fcstival, the entourage of ihe bridc, captivc womcn lakcn at wars, womcn bought at distress sales, tempie womcn and the inhabilanls of brolhcls. Brolhcls and proslilulion arc as old as Vedic limes. For aa ovcrwhclming!y large scction of womcn, thus, ihcrc was no conjugal lile at all.

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II

Bctwccn the timc of the carlicsl period of the composilion of the Mahabharala and ils compleiion, thcrc was a scrics of forcign invasions and occupations. The llrst to arrivc wcrc the Greeks wilh Alcxandcr, then the Scylhians, Pahlavas, Sassanians, Kushans and finally lowards the very latcst accrctions camc Ihc Huns. All of them camc in big or smali hordes, and aflcr the balllc, they becamc parł of ihc Indian populalion. They brought with them ihcir own cusloms, social clhos and cultural valucs. The prolongcd proccss of assimilalion led lo modificalion, somelimes ąuitc radical, of cxisting valucs which parlly cxplains ihc incrcasing number of Dharmaśaslras somelimes in contradiclion witth cach olher. Rcgional and tcmporal variations, loo, account for somc changcs. But togelher with the carlicr Vcdic literaturę, Ihe Dharmaśaslras olTcr a Iramc of rcfcrcncc for the codę of conjugal bchaviour in the Mahabharala. Il was not a uniform codę, ncilhcr for the whole of northem India nor for all lhose cight or ninc cenluries during which the cpic was under composilion, il was a changing, moving, growing set of values which constitute ihe conccpt of conjugality herc, for the afllucnl scction of