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CONCEPT OF CONJUGALITY IN TIIE MAIIABIIAKATA 45

rclations. Il was rcmembered and treasured in anccdolcs strcwn here and there in ihc epic, but as society took over the control ovcr female sexualiiy (but nevcr the maie) and deputized the husband and in-laws to dominate the wifc and dcprive her of sexual freedom, in order thal they could be absolutcly surę of the patemity of the hcir to whom the nouveau riche determined to bequcath their wealth - it was then that the female partner in conjugal lile became an inert, passive sexual prisoner, allhough there was almost no curb to the man’s promiscuily. It is not for nolhing that this epic alone rccords the illegitimate births of most of ils heroes or lincage-progenitors. The vitality of the early ethos demonstrates that this did not lead to any real harm or cvil. It was only when conjugal rclationship became a dead inslitution that real evil could corrode il. Unless both the parlners are truły in love likc Nala and DamayanlT, S5vitrl and Salyavat, conjugalily becomes a mere ossillcd codę of conduct; it can reject morę than it can accept. As soon as the emotive basis, the passional overtoncs are lost to conjugality, and these are subsumed under institutional laws, it dies as a dynamie relation. There is a radical diffcrence belween a loving Sita, Saviirl and DamayantI and the lalcr conccpt of the ⁴pativratS'. One can be a ⁴palivratS ⁹ without evcr loving her husband, just as a husband can be a morally perfect and dutiful husband without ever feeling any emotion for the wifc. When love, affcction, compassion and sympathy are there, dulics and obligations to the partner follow naturally as concomitants, but when thcsc are placed on a pedcstal, the bottom-board of conjugality is knockcd out. Whal remains is a dry framework of conjugal prescriplions based on dulics and obligations; love, the foundation of the bond becomes optional. There werc cxceptions in evcry period, but they were exceptions based on personal choice and inclinalions; the scriptures did not prescribe them. Social pressures were congcaling a living rclationship slowly but surely into a soulless institulion; the lalcr Smrtis only expcdited the process.

Notes and References

1.    Sariivarta 66.

2.    Sccond Scx_t pp. 445-6.

3.    Outrjgcous Acts and Evcryday Rebdtions, p. 214.

4.    Op. Cit., p. 212.

5.    Daksa 4 : 10.

m

6.    Vasi$lha 5.

7.    Vasistha i.

8.    Visnu 25 : 1-3.

9.    I: 82.

10.    Cf. 3: 55-57 j9.