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CONCEPT OF CONJUGALITY IN TIIE MAIIADI IARATA    33

while she is sleeping. On the way he keeps turning towards her again and again, dcdicating her to the gods, in deeply moving words. On waking up, she grievcs not so much for herself as for the halplcss Nala. This is the spontancous reciprocity of true conjugal lovc. Ncither is haunted so much by a sense of dereliclion of duty as by the lhought of the loving spouse’s sulTering.

Aftcr a long senes of mishaps and altcr enduring various kinds of distressful expericnccs she finally reaches her parents. Nala, disfigured, in abject penury and wholly fricndless takes up a job in a royal kitchen where every night hc sings a vcrse of dolcful and forlorn yearning. Through a scries of feelers which DamayanlT sent out to find Nala, evenlually they mcci and are united. At her parents* place DamayantT, a maturę woman, a molhcr of leen-age childrcn plainly lells her mother that if her molhcr wanls her to live, she has to arrange a groom-sclcclion ccrcmony to which Nala is surę to come, no matter where and how hc livcs. The utter poignancy of the yearning betrays the depth of her lovc. At their rcunion, bolh were unwashed, undccoratcd, bolh languishcd for cach other, but they just cmbraced each olher and lalked the whole night through. Herc is lovc at ils dccpesl, most romantic and most authenlic, without bcing trammelled by any sense of duty or obligation. It is the finest tale of romantic conjugal lovc in Mah&bh&rata and one of the world *s best.

How chcap and shallow sound the words of the Vaidarbha princess Lopamudra to her husband when she says that he can only approach her on a bed similar to the one she slcpt on al her falhcr*s ! Evcn when the young Sukanya, married to dcCrcpit Cyavana was approachcd by the Aśvins and replied saying ‘I cannot accept anyone exccpt the one to whom my father gavc mc away’⁸', thcrc is no proof that the words are impclled by any cmolion. This is the coiwcntional norm of conjugal duty. She is rattling off the coiwcntional Dharmaśaslra fonnula for the dutiful wife.

Regarding children we have secn that sale, adoplion and gili of children requircd the consent of bolh the parents.⁸⁴ Yct Sunahśepha and Rohitaśva were sold, and Vessantara*s children given away, without evcn consulting the molhers. King Somaka who suffered from intense anxiety and apprehension bccause he had just one son, was adviscd by his priest to offer the infant in a sacrifice, so that when the hundred ąueens smclt the sacrifical smoke they would conccive and the king would havc a hundred sons. This the king did without the molhcr *s consent.⁸⁵

Evcn among the gods the attitudes to conjugal obligalionś were those current among men. Dcfcatcd by Nahusa, Indra hid under water. His wife SachI whom Nahusa wished to enjoy, secretly came to Indra for advice. Indra told her how Nahusa could olTcnd the sagę Agastya and be cursed.⁸⁶