geoffrey parrinder - sexual morality in the world%27s religions

8/16/2019 Geoffrey Parrinder - Sexual Morality in the World%27s Religions

1/285


2/285

About the Author

Geoffrey Parrinder is Emeritus Professor of the ComparativeStudy of Religions at King s College, University of London. H ehas travelled and lectured widely, and is the author of manyhighly successful books on world religions, which have been

translated into ten languages.

About the Book

A masterly discussion Book Choice

A compendium of information covering all the major religions

of the world The Expository TimesA unique and most explicit piece of pioneering research. It is a

book of serious scholarship and yet written in such a stimulatingstyle BB C Book Review

Informative about religions all over the world on everythingfrom tem ple prostitution to Utam aro s prints of the FloatingWorld The Tablet


3/285

Y T H E S A ME A U T H O R

T h e Bhagavad Gi ta : Verse TrarrslatioirUpanishads, Gita a d BibleTI2e Sigrri~ airseof the Bhagavad Git af or Christiair 7'heologyThe Bhagavad Gita arrd World Scriptures Today

Avatar arrd IrrcarrrationJesus iir the Qur'air

Mysticism irr the World's Rel@oils7'he Christiair Approach to the Arrimist77ie Christiarr DebateComparative ReligioilAsiair ReligiorrsThe World's Livirlg ReligioirsW ha t World Religioirs Teach

Dictioirary ofNorl-Christiair Religioirs

Book of World ReliqiorrsWorship iir the World's ReligiotrsT h e Irrdestructible SoulThe Wisdo m of the ForestT h e Wi sdom ofthe Early BuddhistsTh e Sayirgs of the BuddhaEtrcoui~terirgWorld ReligiorrsSoil ofJoseph

Dictiorrary ofReligious arrd Spiritual Quotatiorrs

West Afvicarr ReligiouAfrica's Three ReligiorrsReligioir r atr Africar~Ci tyAfricarr MythologyT he Story of KetuWitchcraft, European arid AfricarrA f i a i ~raditior~alReligiotrWest Africa11 Psychology


4/285

S E X U A L M O R A L I T YI N T H E WORLD S RELIGIONS

O N W O R L D

O X F O R D


5/285

SEXUAL MORALITY INTHE WORLD S RELIGIONS

Onew orld Publications(Sales an d Editorial)185 Banbury Road

Oxford OX2 7AREnglandwww.oneworld publications.com

eoffrey Parrinder 1980,1996Reprinted 1998

Converted to digital printing 2003

All rights reserved.Copyright under Berne Convention.A CIP record for this title is available

from the British Library.

ISBN 1-85168-108-6NL08


6/285

I N T R O D U C T I O N

S A C R E D S E X I N I N D I ADivine Examples. Heroic Ideals . Marriage and RitualUnion. Austerity and Chastity. Woman s Lot. Prostitution.Sex Manuals. Religion and Sex in Art. Yoga and Tantra.Reaction.

B U D D H I S T R E N U N C I A T I O NTh e Ascetic Middle Way. Celibate and Sexual Power.Buddhist Tantra. Lay Marriage and Morality.

O T H E R I N D I A N T R A D I T I O N SJain A sceticism. Sikh Virility. Parsi Custom s.Tribal Religions.

C H I N E S E Y I N A N D Y A N GFem ale and Male. Yin and Yang. Tao. Tao in Sex.Confucian Morality. Marriage. Buddhist Influences.

Variations. Reactions.

J A P A N S F L O A T I N G W G R L DShin to My th. Phallicism and Divine Unions. In and Yo.Women and Men. Marriage. Floating World and Geishas.

T R A D I T I O N A L A F R I C AAtt i tudes . Myths . Phal l ic ism. In i t ia t ion . Dowry and

Polygamy. Fertility. Taboos. Change and Decay.

I S L A M I C C U S T O M ST h e P r o p h e t. M a r r i a g e i n t h e Q u r a n . S e x i n t h eTraditions. Sex in Literature. Mystical Symbolism. TheStatus of Women: Early Islam, Veiling, Ha rem s.


7/285

8 H E B R E W A F F I R M A T I O N S 1 7 8

Creation. Phallicism and Circumcision. Male and Female.

Love and Marriage. Symbolism.

1 0 C H R I S T I A N D I V E R S I T Y 2 0 2

The Gentile Background. The Teaching and Practice ofJesus. Paul and Others. Monogamy and Love. The AsceticEarly and Medieval Church. Lay Marriage and Problems.Vi rg in Bi r th and M other. Reformat ion Ch ange andConservatism. Modern Times. Recent Developments.

11 B A H A I I D E A L S 2 4 2

Chastity. Marriage. Divorce. Contraception and Abortion.Homosexuality. The Status of Women.

1 2 . M O D E R N I N F L U E N C E S 2 5 2

Medicine. Psychology. W omen s Righ ts. Variat ions.Religious Encounter.

S E L E C T B I B L I O G R A P H Y 2 6 3

I N D E X 2 6 9


8/285

Chapter

INTRODUCTION

Sex and religion are two of the commonest concerns ofm ank ind. O ften opposed as physical a nd spiritual, temporaland eternal, they seem to occupy different and clearlydefined territories yet they are always crossing the frontiers.For man canno t live by bread alone an d even his sexual inter-course is shot through with fantasy, while religion takes allthe world a s its province an d turns its eyes upo n the slightestmanifestations of sex, as the history of the great worldreligions demonstrates.

But what is sex? Th eOxford English Dictionary describesit first as Either of the two divisions of organic beingsdistinguished as male and female respectively; th e males an dfemales viewed collectively. This is a very broa d defin ition,including all men and women, and in this sense sex is fun-damental to human nature. It will be important always tohave this broad statement in mind, since it will be necessaryto consider sex as involving the whole personality, of manand woman, and not to think of it as only sexual coition.Understanding of the role of m an a nd the role of w oman asfull hu m an beings is essential in the study of sex.

There is a further dictionary definition, however, whichreflects change and restriction in the use of the word sex. Inrecent use often with mo re explicit notion: The sum of those

differences in the structu re and function of the reproductiveorgans on the ground of which beings are distinguished asmale and female. In modern times to speak of sex often doesnot m ean simply gender, the differences of m ale an d female,but more explicitly their physical union. ThusH G Wells,


9/285

SEXUAL MORALITY IN THE W ORLD S RELIGIONS

writing in 1912 on Marriage, said that the young need to betold all we know of three fundamental things, the first of

which is God and the third Sex. More recently peopletalk of having sex or simply sex as copulation.

Other related words have undergone similar changes. Thusintercourse originally meant communication and in early

use it was restricted to trade. In Victorian novels it was usedof meetings and conversation, and their writers would havebeen shocked at its common modern equivalence withphysical union, though technical writers in the nineteenthcentury already spoke of illicit intercourse .

Because sex and intercourse have both wide and narrowmeanings, the latter perhaps dominating nowadays, somewriters have looked for other terms or qualifications. D. SBailey, an outstanding authority on the history of Christiansexual teaching, wrote of venereal intercourse for what istechnically called coition or sexual copulation. The wordvenereal is derived from Venus, the Koman goddess of

love, but unfortunately this connection is obscure in com-mon English usage and venereal too easily suggests anunpleasant disease communicated by sexual intercourse. Itwould be unfortunate to have this derogatory association ofsex as dominant, especially in the study of religions that havetraditions of depreciation of sex.

In this book efforts are made to be intelligible and ac-curate, though that is not easy. Sex will be used in the widesense of male and female relationships, and more parti-

cularly of sexual intercourse in coition or copulation. Theword love will also be used in the broad meaning of lovingrelationships, and not merely restricted as is often done nowto making love .

Religion likewise is notoriously difficult to define. Somereligions believe in a supreme God, others speak more of apower or truth, and yet others are chiefly concerned with theancestors and survival of death. Taking the broad viewagain, the Chinese Yin and Yang will be included in thereligious or spiritual, as well as the Almighty God or Wordof the Lord.

This is a book of comparative religion , not in the sense ofcompetition but in examination of different religious

2


10/285

I N T R O D U C T I O N

traditions. It seems to be unique in making a study of sex andreligion together, as seen by the major living religions. For

while there are countless books on the religions of the world,and summary comparative accounts of the major religionstogether, nearly all such works seem to neglect specificallysexual factors, despite the admitted importance of sex forreligion. Many comparative studies of the IndianUpanishads, for example, expound their ideas of individualand universal souls, but they ignore Upanishadic teachingson rituals of sexual intercourse, and these are often omitted

also in translations of the texts. Books on Yoga tend to leaveaside sexual practices that may be used, or the physiologicaltheories of sex that underlie much of both Indian andChinese forms of Yoga.

Much of this work is exploratory, for relatively little hasbeen written on such matters. In the Christian field, saysCanon Bailey, no attempt has hitherto been made to give adetailed account of the sexual tradition. On China, says Drvan Gulik, I found that there was practically no seriousliterature available, either in standard Chinese sources or inWestern books and treatises on China. Some religions arebetter documented than others on sexual matters, and thereis bound to be some imbalance in a comparative study.Apology is made here for such defects, and the hope is ex-pressed that this important subject will be opened up morefully and in detail on particular religions in the future.

This book is not for Manichees, those who regard sexual

intercourse as sinful, polluting, or inferior, and they arewarned not to read it. If you can t stand the heat, get out ofthe kitchen. On the other hand, this book is not for thesalacious, looking for saucy titbits. It is meant to be factualand scientific, and technical names have been used instead oftheir popular equivalents. The comparative aim has deter-mined the contents, by trying to see others as they haverelated sex and religion to each other, and thereby perhaps to

see ourselves better.This study has aroused numerous reflections, not least on

D. S. Bailey The Man- Woman Relation in Christian Thought 1959,p. vi; R. H. van Gulik SexualLife in Ancient China 1961, p. xi.


11/285

SEXU AL lMORALITY INTHE WORLD S RELIGIONS

the complex history of my own ancestral faith in this field.The activities of human beings often appear strange or

foolish, b ut like oth er occupations the sexual life of m ankindillustrates both the joy an d the sadness that ap pear in hum anaffa irs. Some sexual practices hardly merit the nam e of love,yet love of ten emerges in unexpected places. Som etimes it is awill o the wisp, an d at oth er times it reflects Dan te s visionof the love tha t moves the sun an d the other stars .


12/285

hapter

S CRED S X IN INDI

Now here have the close relationships of religion an d sex beendisplayed more clearly than in India and, with divine andhuman models of sexual activity, sacramental views of sexwere abundantly illustrated. It is helpful, therefore, t o beginthis comparative study with the ancient religion of Hin-duism , though it is a vast com plex wherein attitudes tow ardssex range from full indulgence to ascetic denial. Often

regarded as the source of world-denying and pessimisticattitudes in Asia, Hinduism may also be seen as naturalisticand erotic. Some Hindu texts said that the sage should beindifferent to all hum an ties, an d a t the same time tha t it wasthe gods and sages who taught men the sciences of pleasurean d love.

DIVINEEX MPLES

Modern excavations in the ruined cities of the Indus plainstake us back beyond the oldest scriptures, to find traces ofsexual practices which link up with later times. According tothe Aryan invaders of north-western India the peoples theyconquered had black complexions, no noses to speak of,unintelligible speech, n o rites, were indifferent t o the gods',an d probab ly worshipped the phallus.

Like most conquerors the Aryans despised their subjectsbecause they did not speak their language or follow theirreligion. But worship of the phallus, the ling of laterHin duism , is appa rent am ong the peoples of the Indu s plainsfrom many cone-shaped objects which have been fo und the re


13/285


and are probably phallic representations. Among smallengraved seals which have been found, several depict a

horned figure, with three faces, sitting naked, in a Yoga-posture , surrounded by fou r wild anim als. H e is ithyphallic,and this with the animals and plant-like growth from hishead indicates that he was a fertility god. This figure hasbeen well called a Proto-Shiva, for in later Hinduism thegreat god Shiva was sometimes depicted with three or fourfaces, was a fertility deity, symbolized by the phallus, andknown as L ord of Yoga an d L ord of Beasts.

Also in the ruins of the Indus plains there have been dis-covered many rough terra cotta statuettes of naked or nearlynaked wom en, an d these are thought to be icons of a M otherGoddess, very important for female fertility and the healthof children. There are so many of these that they wereprobably kept in every hom e of the w alled cities of the Indusvalley. In the A ryan Vedic literature there isrir meat MotherGoddess, but if she went underground among tile survivorsof the Indus plains culture, she reappeared after a thousandyears a nd it has been sa id that she became the greatest powerin the Orient. Und er many names-Great Goddess, M other,Daughter of the Mountains (Parvati), Inaccessible (Durga),Black (Ka1i)-she is on e of the great deities of modern Ind ia.

There is also an interesting bronze figurine which depicteda slim girl, naked except for necklace and bangles, andstanding in a provocative posture . It has been suggested thatshe was a prototype of the devadask temple dancer andprostitute of later times, but it is not certain that she was adancer o r attached to a temple. T here were also ring-shapedstones which have been claimed as representations of thevulva, the yon revered in later Hinduism, but this iden-tification is disputed. There is another seal which shows ahorned figure, perhaps a goddess, standing in a pipal tree,the sacred Bo-tree popular later. In front of her are sevenpig-tailed figures, probably female attendants. Another seal

shows a m an fighting two tigers, which has been com pared t othe Mesopotamian motif of the hero Gilgamesh fighting twolions.

Th e cities of th e In dus plains were devastated in the secondmillennium B.C. an d there was no comparable architecture for


14/285

S C R E D S E X I N I N D I

nearly a thousand years. Religious ideas from the Indusplains cultures probably survived, a nd perhap s Yoga a nd the

potent belief in rebirth may have come from those ancienttimes. They a ppe ar in the philosophical U panishads, an d re-birth a t least is claimed there as a belief foreign t o the A ryanpriests. The god Shiva, unknown to the Vedic hymns,ap-peared in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, where Yoga wasalso sketched. H e was first of all shown as an attribute of theVedic god R ud ra, the name Shiva meaning kindly orausp icious , bu t his mythology developed late r.

In the great epic poem Mahabharata, Shiva appeared asone of the leading gods, and here and in the popular P ura natales his complex mythology and character were elaborated.Shiva was both a god of sex and of Yogic asceticism, ofvirility an d destruction , an d theling by which he was repre-sented showed his sexuality concentrated by asceticism. Noon e text gave all the episodes of Shiva s activities insequence, but some of their main elements may be sum-marized.

Shiva was sitting in ascetic meditation in the mountainswhen P arvati , daughter of H imalaya , wanted t o marry him.Her paren ts were displeased but K am a, god of love, was sentto inspire Shiva with desire for P arva ti. S hiva burn t Kam a t oashes with the fire of his third eye, but later revived him.Shiva then appe ared before Parv ati a s a priest an d tested herby describing his unpleasant qualities: his ashes, three eyes,nakedness, snakes, garland of skulls, and h om e in crem ation

grounds. When Parvati remained steadfast Shiva agreed tomarry her, and at the wedding he caused scandal by ap-pearing in scanty ascetic clothes.

After the wedding Shiva and Parvati made love, butfollowing further adventures his sexual powers began todiminish and he went off to the forest to revive them byasceticism. The earth began to shake with his ascetic powertapas), so that he aban don ed it. H e wandered in the forest,

naked, ithyphallic, dancing and begging with a skull in hishand . Th e wives of the sages there fell in love with Shiva andfollowed h im, so that the sages cursed hisling and made itfall to the ground. This caused a terrible fire and the godsBrahm a a nd Vishnu tried in vain to find the top a nd bo ttom


15/285


o f the huge linga, an d peace w as only restored when the sagesan d their wives agreed t o worship it. W hen Shiva returned to

Pa rva ti the friction gene rated by their love-play was so greatthat the gods were again afraid and sent the god of fire,Agni, to interrupt them an d eventually a son was born to thedivine couple.

These my ths, with many variations, have been popu lar inIndia down the centuries and form ed m otifs fo r painting a ndsculpture . In m any texts Shiva was said to be ithyphallic an dthis was his commonest iconic representation, with the lingaoften fixed in the female yo ni. In the Linga Pu ra n a it wassaid that the gods went to visit Shiva in his paradise andfound him in sexual intercourse with Parvati, which thecouple continued despite their visitors. Vishnu began tolaugh , an d others were angry an d cursed Shiva an d his wife.They d ied in the position of intercourse , Shiva saying his newshape would be the linga, which men must model andworship. Th e 6inga was Shiva himself, an d the yo ni P arva ti,an d this was the origin of all things.

Sometimes Shiva was represented with his consort in asingle androg ynous hum an figure, as in a fam ous sculpturein the Elephanta caves near Bombay. The combination inShiva of phallicism and asceticism may be confusing toforeigners, though to many Hindus they are not just op-posites bu t interchangeab le identities. A sceticism tapas) anddesire (kam a) were not wholly con tradictory , but were bothseen as form s of energy. Fo r m any H indu s Shiva is the great

God and his linga, often of carved stone, is the ubiquitoussymbol of his cult. His modern worship, especially insouthern India, has been called the clearest Indian form ofmonotheism, for devotees seek his favour alone and he isbelieved to ap pe ar in vision to inspire and help lonely souls.

Hindu gods had their complementary goddesses, thoughmost of them were pale reflections of their lords, having thesame name with feminine endings, such as Indrani or

Brahm ani. T he wife of the other great god, Vishnu, however,

See W . D O Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology ofSiva 1973 pp 3 f f .

See M . Dhavamony,Love of God according to Saiva Siddhifnta 1971.


16/285


Shri or Lakshmi, was portrayed as a beautiful woman with alotus in her hand, and she is popular as the goddess of good

luck and worldly blessing. But it is the Mother Goddess, wifeof Shiva under many names, who is the most important. Shewas the Shakti or potency of her male counterpart, activeand immanent when he was passive and transcendent, andshe was of great significance in later Tantra.

The Goddess was a great Mother, but she also had terribleaspects, and she is still represented in bazaar paintings as ahorrible hag, black, and stark naked except for a garland of

skulls. She has tusks and a lolling red tongue, brandishesweapons, and tramples on a buffalo-headed demon, or evenstands on the prostrate body of her spouse Shiva. TheGoddess s worshipped in the yoni, and according to mythwhen her father quarrelled with Shiva she threw herself intothe flames of a sacrifice, and the ashes of her yoni fell invarious places of India which became the shrines of her cult.

Another very popular Hindu god of love was Krishna, andhe had an equally complex story. His name also meansblack , and it is possible that he was the successor of an

ancient deity of dark-skinned peoples. He appeared in theMahabharata as a hero of cowherds, though in the BhagavadGita he was the lofty teacher of morality and the supremeGod. In Purana story Krishna was both cowherd adventurerand demon-killing prince. His childhood pranks made himthe darling of women, and his romances with the cowgirlsincreased his attractions. When the girls ,were bathing,

Krishna stole their clothes and made them come naked tohim to receive them, with hands above their heads. This storyof full frontal nudity, still popular in verse and painting, wasgiven mystical interpretations of the nakedness of the soulbefore God.

Passionate longings were expressed in worship and poetrydedicated to Krishna. He played his flute in the forest andwomen left their husbands, breaking the customs which

required women always to obey and stand by their husbands,but symbolizing the soul leaving all for God. The girlsdanced in a round, with Krishna in the midst, and by usinghis delusive power he provided each girl with a semblance ofhimself. They took off their clothes and jewels and offered


17/285

SEXUAL MORALITYIN THE WORLD 'S RELIGIONS

them all to him, and after bathing with them he sent themhome.

theme that developed in myth was of Krishna dis-appearin g fr om the dance to m ake love to one particular girlin the forest, and in time she was named as Ra dh a his par-am o ur , loveliest of all the cowgirls. T h e loves of Krishna a ndRadha became major themes, with her sexual passion andadu ltery in leaving her husb and indicating the priority whichGod required in loving devotion. The BrahmavaivartaPu ran a, af ter the tenth centuryA.D. , developed the eroticismof the cult and described the union of the couple in mostsensual terms. 'Krishna pulled R adh a with both his arms a ndstripped her of her clothes. Then he kissed her in four dif-ferent ways, and the bells in her girdle were torn off in thebattle of love. Then Radha mounted Krishna and hadreversed intercourse, and later Krishna adopted eight dif-ferent positions an d tore her body with biting an d scratchinguntil she was unable to bear an y m ore an d they ceased fro mthe battle. '

Th ere were still the other cowgirls, now num bered as ninehundred thous and, a nd to sat isfy them Krishna turned intoan equal number of men so that each thought Krishna wasloving her; they were beautiful in their nakedness andswooned in their pleasure until the park resounded with thismass intercourse. Such passionate language expressed theenthusiastic character of much Krishna worship, an d t o thisday millions of pilgrims visit the sites of the myths and

follow the themes of the stor y.

HEROI IDEALS

Hindu moral ideals for human relations were also expressedin the epic poems, Mahabharata and Ramayana and booksof Sacred Law, almost as sacred as the Vedas and moreloved. Th e adventures of men an d wom en, rulers and heroes,gods an d de mo ns, in the epics played a great part in pop ularIndian religion an d provided stan dar ds of co nduct.

See W . G. Archer The Loves of Krishna 1957; N C ChaudhuriHinduism 1979 p. 275.


18/285


19/285


an d th at ascetics might give up sensual actions yet still thinkab ou t them, like St Antony in the desert.

In the G ita the warrior Arjuna was told t o d o his duty , butin complete detachment from results, without thought ofreward or punishment. Moreover, he should see the samebeing in a priest asin a n ou tcaste, an d even m ore impassivelyshould be the same to friend and foe, indifferent to enemy,neutral, or friend. There was little trace of human love orreference to women, and such ethereal teaching might bem ore a pp rop riate t o celibate priests or men in the last stages

of life, rather than to ardent soldiers or married house-holders. This cold serenity has been criticized in moderntimes as disregarding the difference between good and evil,an d giving the possibility of im m oral actions. But it is not soharsh as one of the Upanishads, which declared tha t, H ewho understands me is not injured by any deed: not bystealing, not by procuring a n abo rtion, not by the mu rder ofhis mo ther, not by the murder of his fa th er e Y 4

Co ntrary to such indifference, th e tales of the epic provideplenty of examples of affection, and the ideals of marriedlove and the fidelity of women are popular themes.Afavourite story of the Mahabharata is the love of Nala andDamayanti, of which there are several translations inE n g l i ~ h . ~ala was a king endowed with all the virtues,hand som e, a connoisseur of horses, who sp oke the truth butloved to gamble. Dam ayan ti was exceedingly beautiful, withlong eyes and flawless limbs, and she fell in love with Nala

an d he with he r, simply by hearing each other s praises sung .Dam ayan ti s fath er decided to hold a self-choice orbridegroom-choice , a privilege of da ugh ters of the warrior

caste. Four of the chief gods attended and each took theform of Nala to confuse the girl , but she was able todistinguish her beloved by his shadow, faded garland, dust,sweat and blinking eyes, none of which marked the perfectgods. N ala an d Dam ayanti were married an d lived in happy

love until Nala lost all his belongings in gambling, like someother heroes, so that he had to g o to the forest with his wife.Kaushitaki Upan ishad, 3.1Ma habharata, 3,50f f ; see translation byJ A B. van Buitenen, vol. 2,

p. 322 f f .


20/285

S A C R E D S E X I N I N D I A

In despair he abandoned Damayanti in the hope that shewould return to her fath er, a nd being bitten by a snake Nala

was turned into a dw arf. A fter many a dventures the couplecame together again, when Damayanti recognized Nala andhe regained his own fo rm . H e won back his kingdom at diceand they lived in happiness, Nala content in reunion with hiswife and D ama yanti refreshed like a n acre with half-growncrops o n receiving rain . H e who tells or listens to this storywill find sons and grandsons, and be happy in health andlove.

A faith ful a nd sacrificial lover was princess Savitri, nam edafte r a goddess. A lthough she was beau tiful, with fine waistand broad hips, like a golden statue, yet no man asked forher hand, being dazzled by her eyes like lotus petals whichblazed with splendour. So her fa ther gave her a self-choiceand Savitri rode off in a chariot to inspect the field. Shechose Satyavat, a prince who had only a year to live, andinsisted on marrying him despite her fath er s objections.When the time came for his death Satyavat laid his head inSavitri s lap, an d she saw Yam a the god of death app ear anddraw ou t Sa tyavat s soul, the size of a th um b. Savitrifollowed Yama and he was pleased by her devotion andoffered her three boons for her family, except the life of herhusband, but she persisted and gained that also. Satyavatwoke up and they returned to his parents, where the storywas recounted. Thus Savitri by wifely devotion saved herhusba nd , his family and the entire dynas ty. Sa tyavat receiveda life of four hundred years, and Savitri was praised forrescuing him and she gave birth to a hundred sons who in-creased her fame.

Generally the popular tales give great importance toKama: love, pleasure, or desire. Despite what was saidearlier about Dharma, other passages in the epic speak ofKama as the foundation of Dharma and Artha, it is theiressence and womb, and the innermost core of the world.

W ithout love a ma n has n o wish for w orldly prof it, and allkinds of occup ations are inspired by it. F or th e sake of lovesages studied the Vedas, offe red sacrifices, or gave themselves

Mahabharata, 3 277 ff

13


21/285

SEXU L MORALITY IN THE WORLD 'S RELIGIONS

up to asceticism. Love is all-powerful, knows no laws,and overwhelms with passion. But love must be on both

sides, an d lead to the pleasures of sexual union , f or if a m anloves a woman who does not love him then his whole bodyglows in torm en t. Love therefore should be enjoyed with dis-cretion, and be mutual.

The other epic poem, the Ramayana, has always beentaken as one of the most inspiring examples s heroiccourage, virtue, and marital fidelity. This 'story of Raina'told of the rightful heir to the throne of Ayodhya being

deprived of the succession, an d retiring t o the fo rest with hiswife Sita an d his brother fo r fourteen years. There they led ahard life, sleeping on the grou nd an d clothed in b ark, whilesages came to ask their help against demons that were af-flicting them. Rama fought the demons, whereupon theirking R ava na abdu cted Sita and to ok her t o his island fortressin Shri Lanka (Ceylon). With the help of the monkeys Sitawas rescued, b ut she had t o undergo an o rdeal to prove herchastity and fidelity to Rama. She emerged victorious andthe pair were restored to the throne, there to reign inrighteousness.

The story is straightforward, and little emerges of thepersonal relationships of Rama and Sita. But in a latersection Rama was still suspicious of Sita's conduct duringher captivity and he proposed another purification. Where-upon Sita exclaimed, I'm going hom e to m othe r', a nd theearth swaliowed her up. Sita, whose name meant 'furrow',was the daughter of Mother Earth and returned to her truehome. Then Rama entered a river, like the travellers inPilgrim's Progress , an d 'all the trumpets sounded for him o nthe other side' when with heavenly music he returned to thegod Vishnu. For in devotion this heroic story developed areligious theme of the avatar or 'incarnation' of Vishnu inRama. Rama and Sita became both marital and religiousideals, and in devotional movements which swept across

India drama and song, temples and sculptures, werededicated to them an d m ade them popu lar with the masses.Rama and Sita are celebrated in annual festivals, plays of

Ibid. 12 167


22/285

S A C R E D SE X I N I N D I A

their story attract crowds and have spread across south-eastAsia, while the cinem a gives lush versions of their adven tures

an d love.

MARRIAGE AND RITUAL UNION

Rituals of sexual union can be traced back to the Vedas,though these were chiefly concerned with the worship ofnatu re gods an d details came later. The hym ns of the V edaswere mainly invocations of these gods and were meant to

accompany a libation, Soma, and a fire sacrifice of meltedbutter. In a hymn t o Heaven an d Ea rth the divine fire, Agni,was said to milk from the bull aboun ding in seed his shiningmoisture , meaning th at Agni by his fire caused heaven tofertilize the ea rth an d the latter to be productive.

An ancient Vedic ceremony was the horse-sacrifice ,which was the greatest an imal sacrifice of tho se times. Afterthe king had leta horse roam at will fo r a year, t o enlarge histerritory , it would be sacrificed an d his wife lay by the horseand imitated copulation with it. In the Mahabharata KingYudhishthira let loose a horse in this way before his en-thronement, and at the eventual sacrifice Draupadi, thecom mon wife of the five Pan du p rinces, lay by the horse.

Marriage ceremonies came to be the most elaborate ofdomestic sacrifices, though only a few of the later rituals canbe traced back to the Vedic period . M arriage was regarded asa sacrifice in itself, and an unm arried m an was called one

without a sacrifice . Priests as well as laymen were married ,and where there w as a v ocation to celibacy it was generallyreserved for ascetics and was not necessarily lifelong. ABrahm ana text said that he who has no wife is withoutasacrifice , an d added tha t he is himself a half man an d thesecond half is wife. Men yearned fo r sons, though oc-casionally it was said that sages had passed beyond suchdesire.

In olden days marriage ceremonies varied, though theywere arranged by the fathers and celebrated on auspicious

Rig Veda, 1 160J J Meyer, Sexual ife n Ancient In dia 1952 p 15 ff .


23/285

SEXUAL MORALITYIN THE W ORLD S RELIGIONS

days. The father would deck his daughter with clothes andjewels, an d the bridgeg room might give as much wealth as he

could afford to the bride and her kinsmen. The father ad-dressed the couple with the simple words: M ay b oth of youperform together your duties. But m ore detail appears fromthe epics where the p arents gave many presentsto the family,the dead , an d holy m en. A t Sita s wedding to Ra m a, herfather lit the flame on the family altar and sacrificed withtraditional verses. Then he placed the adorned Sita beforethe fire, facing R am a, an d said: This is Sita, my daug hter,your wife. Ta ke her, I beg; tak e her han d with your hand . Asa faithful wife, favoured by happiness, she will follow youevermore as your shad ow. l o

There are many ceremonies in modern traditionalmarriages, for those who can afford them, and in many ofthem th e bride an d bridegroom represent the god Shiva an dhis wife Parvati, personifying them as ascetics but also assplendid deities. The bridegroom wears a loincloth but alsoa crown covered with gold or silver paper. Other couplesmight be more fully dressed, and in great procession thebridegroom comes on a horse, perhaps borrowed for theoccasion, and in royal weddings he would be mounted on a nelephant. Those who are interested in the many details ofmarriage ceremonies may be referred to specialist works onthem.

The custom of child marriage goes back to ancient times,though apologists claim that the laws were given only as

guidan ce to su itable ages. Th e principle seemed to be tha t thehu sba nd sho uld be three times the age of his wife: A m an ofthirty years shall marry a maiden of twelve, or a man oftwenty-four a girl of eight; but if the performance of hisduties would otherwise be impeded, he must marry sooner,for the husband receives his wife from the gods and notacco rding to his ow n wi11. 12 The rules of caste hedgedaro un d the options op en in the choice of a w ife, though them an a nd her fath er had th e responsibility a nd n ot the woman .

O Laws of Man u, 3.26 ff . ; Rarnayana, 1.73.S Stevenson, The Rites of the Twice-born 1920, chs. 3-5; R. B.

Pandey, Hindu Samskiiras 2nd edn . 1969,ch . 8.*

Laws of M anu , 9 .94 .


24/285


Similarly the rem arriage of a widow was forbidden f rom a nearly date, for she must always revere him. A husband m ust

be constantly worshipped as a go d by a faith ful wife, even ifhe is devoid of good qualities or seeks pleasure else-where And a virtuous wife who remains cons tantlychaste after the death of her hu sba nd, reaches heaven, but awom an w ho f rom a desire to have offspring violates her dutytowards her deceased husband, brings disgrace on herselfan d loses her place with her husband in heaven. Observers inm odern times have noted th at the horror of being left a

widow gives colour an d direction to all a H indu wom an sprayers a nd thou ghts. I3 Pleasure in sex m ay be very limited,for a wom an.

Ancient texts gave many love-charms for a successfulfamily life, and to win or compel a wo ma n s or a m an s love.There were imprecations against rival w omen an d curses ofspinsterho od. A lover entering a girl s hom e by nightmuttered a spell to put the household to sleep. Special at-tention was given to maintaining or recovering virile powerin the man, and successful conception and pregnancy inthe woman, with protection against demons and eventualbirth of sons. There were medical and magical remedies,herbalism, an d charms.l 4

In the Upanishads, alongside philosophical dialogues,there a re descriptions of ritual sexual intercourse. In a n earlypassage of cosmological speculation it was said that in thebeginning there existed only the self in the for m of a pe rson.

He was alone and afraid, and had no pleasure, so that hedesired a second. This self was as big as a m an a nd w om an inclose embrace, so he divided himself into two parts fromwhich husb an d an d wife arose , for oneself is like a half-frag m en t , therefore this space is filled by a wife. Th en hecopulated with her and human beings were produced. Shehid herself a nd became a cow, but he changed into a bull an dfrom their copulation cattle were born. Likewise with all

other animals, he created all, whatever pairs there are, evendow n to the an ts. Whatever is m oist, he created from semen,an d f rom the m outh as fire-hole or vulva yoni) he created

bid. 5 154 f f , and S. Stevenson, op . cit . ,p. 108.l See H. Zimmer, Philosophies of India, 195 1 pp. 147 f f


25/285

SEXUAL M ORALITY INTH WORLD S RELIGIONS

fire.15 Plato , in his Sym posium , described a similar singleoriginal being which was separated into m an a nd wom an.

In later verses of the first Upanishad sexual intercoursewas described as a ceremony, with preliminary purifications,symbolical comparisons, and prayers, as in other Vedicrituals. The example was given of Prajapati, Lord ofCreatures, who created woman and revered her lower parts,which his followers should do. Then he enlarged that stonewhich projects and impregnated her. T he wom an was trans-figured to become the consecrated place where sacrifice was

perform ed. Her lap isa

sacrificial altar , her pubic hairs arethe sacrificial grass, her skin is the press for the Somalibation, the two lips of the vulva a re the fire in the middle.Indeed, just as on e is strengthened by sacrifice, so great is theworld of him w ho practises sexual intercou rse with this ritualknowledge. Thus coition was not a hurried, or only aphysical, incident but an engagem ent of the whole person ina sacramen t.

From this time, at least, there spread the belief that therewards of a sacrifice could be obtained bya ritually con-sum mated sexual union . But the ma le was do m inan t, fo r if aman desired a woman then, after her purification fromm enstrua tion , he would invite her to lie with him. If she didnot g ran t his desire kama) he would bribe her, a nd if she stillrefused he should hit her with his hand or with a stick andovercome her an d say, W ith pow er, with gloryI take awayyour glory an d she became inglorious.l

Belief in the mystical power of semen, which was im-portant in later Yoga, appeared here. If semen was spilt,whether awake or asleep, it should be taken between fingerand thumb and rubbed between the breasts or eyebrowswhile saying, I reclaim this semen, let me com e to strengthagain . Magical notions of the reabsorp tion of semen ap-peared in instructions for behaviour according to whetheroffspring was desired or not, a kind of contraception by

supernatural means. If a man desired a woman with thetho ug ht, may she not conceive offspring , then after in-serting his sexual organ artha) in her, an d joining m outh to

Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad 1.4. lbid. 6.4. Ibid.

8


26/285


m outh, he should breathe in and out and say, W ith power,with sem en, reclaim the semen fro m you. But if he wished

the woman to conceive he would say, With power, withsemen I deposit semen in you. If a ma n s wife had a loverthe husband would cast a magical charm on him, puttingarow of arrows in reverse order and sacrificing in reverseorder an d saying, You have mad e a libation in my fire, Itake away your breathing in a nd ou t , and naming theenemy.

Conc eption took place in the name of the gods when a ma n

desired a son. In the morning libations were made to thegods, and having eaten and washed the man sprinkled thewom an three times with water saying, I am this man , youare that wom an I am heaven, you are earth. H e openedher thighs saying, Spread yourselves apart, heaven andea rth . Me inserted his sexual orga n in her, an d joiningm outh to m outh he stroked her hair three times, saying, LetVishnu m ake the wom b prepared Pr aja pa ti, let himpour in , an d ending,

As Ea rth contains the germ of Fire,as Heaven is pregnant with the S torm ,as the W ind is germ of the D irections,even so I place a germ in you.l a

Sexual intercourse was not only a physical action, it wasgiven the value of a religious ritual, and thus prepared theway for the later developments known as Tantra. In cor-

responding fashion, ritual could be interpreted in a sexualway and even minute details might be explained by thissymbolism. Thus if in the course of a recitation the priestseparated the first two quarters of a verse and brought theother two close together, this was said to be happeningbecause a wom an separates her thighs during copulation andthe m an presses them together. Th e inaudible recitation of atext was compared to the emission of semen, and whena

priest turned his back and went down on his knees this wasexplained by the imagery of the copu lation of an ima ls.lIn the second of the classical Upanishads sexual union was

Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad 6.4 22. l Aitareya Brahmana 10.3.

9


27/285

SEXUA L MORALITY IN TH EWORLD S RELIGIONS

transposed and valued as a liturgical chant saman), and inparticular the Vamadevya, the melody which accompanied

the pressing of the plant fo r the m idday libation. Each of thesix actions of intercourse was m ade to correspond with partsof the ritual: the sum m ons , the request, lying dow n with thewo m an, lying upon her, coming to the end, com ing to finish.Th e conclusion was reached tha t, H e who knows thus thisVamadevya Saman as woven upon copulation comes tocopulation, procreates himself from every copulation,reaches a full length of life, lives lon g, becomes grea t in o ff-

spring and in cattle, great in fam e. O ne should never abstainfrom any wom an. Tha t is hisrule. 20In the epic it was said that the adult state was reached

when people become ripe for love , an d m arried couplesmust perform their sexual duty. The term ritu, a time orseason, was used for both menstruation and for thefollowing days which were favourable for procreation. I twas a sin for a hus ban d not to visit his wife a t the latter tim e,though he must never approach her during her periods,except in som e form s of Tan tra when this was encouraged bybreaking the taboo. Wise men should go to their wives at thelatter ritu, a nd keep away fro m strange wom en, an d this wassaid t o be a n ancient an d sacred rule for all fo ur castes whichwas followed in the golden age.

Sexual intercourse was not unrestricted. It should bepractised privately a nd n ot in the open ai r, an d only with thevulva since oral sex was forb idde n. Intercourse should n ot be

held with strange women, and especially not with those ofbaser caste, with exceptions aga in in Ta ntr a. Both the epicsand the Laws of Manu condemned intercourse with ateacher s wife as particularly sh am eful, thou gh since the pro-hibitions detailed anointing her, helping her in the bath,shampooing her limbs, and arranging her hair, the dangersmust have been great for young pupils, and prohibitionimplies temptation. The same Laws forbade rape, to be

punished by severing two fingers, and Lesbianism whichbrought fines and beating to a girl, and head shaved or twofingers severed f or a w om an who p olluteda girl an d she had

2 Chandogya Upanishad,2.13.

2


28/285


to ride through the town on a donkey. Male homosexualityseemed to receive less pun ishm ent, a twice-born m an who

commits an unnatural offence with a male shall bathe,dressed in his clothes , says on e law, bu t an othe r prescribedloss of his caste. Some medieval writers regarded un der-love , male homosexu ality, as quite comm on and no t a per-version.

Incest was severely pun ished, including sexual intercoursewith sisters by the same mother, wives of a friend o r of a son .This was equivalent to violation of a Guru s bed, for which

punishments varied. They could involve lying on a heatediron bed or embracing the red-hot image of a woman, orcutting off penis and testicles and walking with them injoined hands until the offender fell down dead. Or he couldd o penance in the forest for a year, or live on barley gruel forthree mon ths and perform penance.

AUSTERITY A N D CHASTITY

Despite general positive attitudes to sex, some found allworldly affairs d istasteful, and there developed renun ciationof normal life by Hindu ascetics and Jain and Buddhistmo nks. In the Upanishads King Brihad -ratha , having estab-lished his son in the kingdom, became indifferent to theworld a nd went into the forest to st an d, with arms erect andlooking a t the sun , for a tho usand days. T o a visitor he said,In this ill-smelling, unsubstantial body, which is a con-

glomerate of bone, skin, muscle, marrow, flesh, semen,blood, mucus, tears, rheum, faeces, urine, wind, bile, andphlegm, wh at is the good of enjoyment ofdesires? 22

dualism developed, such as was fou nd in othe r religions,between body and so ul. There was no suggestion tha t sexualintercourse might have mystical meanings and actually helpin attaining salvation, but o n the con trary the suppression ofsexual and all desires was seen as a condition for liberation .

Similarly, in the epics millions of sages were said toh ve

been wholly continent and thus to have burnt up all their

2 i Laws of Ma nu, 8 367 f. ; 11 59 104 f . , 175.2 2 Maitri U panishad, 1.3.


29/285

SEXUAL MORALITYIN THE WOR LD S RELIGIONS

sins. Yet their very asceticism, being a powerful force,became dangerous to the stabili ty of the world and

threatened the very gods. Nymphs were sent to tempt suchascetics and they promptly lost their devotion by seeingbeautiful w omen.

When the god Indra saw the danger of the powerfulausterities of the seer Vishvamitra he sent the nymphMenaka to distract him. The girl , with pretty waist andlovely bu ttock s, greeted the ascetic an d began t o play in f ro ntof him. The wind blew off her skirt so that she appeared

naked, whereupon he lusted to lie with her and they madelove in the woods for a long time, which seemed only a d ay .O n M enaka the hermit begot Sha kun tala, a heroine of laterstory.

There are numerous stories of ascetics who had an in-voluntary orgasm at the sight of a lovely woman. Indra sentanothe r divine nymph to check the austerities of Shara dvat.When he saw her in the forest wearing only a single cloth,with a figure unparalleled in the w orld , the sage stared a t herand shuddered. e held his gro und but a sudden spasm over-cam e him tha t ma de him spill his seed without noticing, an dit fell into a reed stalk which split in two and from it twinswere born .

Th e warrior A rjun a, however, was not so easily seduced.Indra sent the nymph Urvashi to tempt him , an d her charmswere lusciously described: the moon of her face, hair full ofjasmine flowers, black-nippled breasts shaking up and do wn ,

temple of th e god of love like a mo unta in, ankles hu ng withbells, and long red toes. But Arjuna was not moved, hebowed to her a s a servant, stopped his ears at her words andhono ured her as his mo ther, s o that U rvashi cursed him withimpotence. Yet Ar jun a h ad had ma ny wives an d mistresses,an d this story showed In dr a approv ing the resistance of hisson to tem ptation, thoug h the curse of impotence remainedfor a year. In the last book of the Ramayana, the same

nymph Urvashi was seen sporting in the waters by the godVaru na and he lusted after her, bu t she claimed to be alreadybespok en so tha t he directed his seed into a pitcher.2 3

3 Mahabharata , 1 66; 1 120; 3 45; Ramayana 7.56 .


30/285


T he epics often declared th at chastity is the highest virtue.Men should not l isten t o light talk abo ut women o r look at

them unclothed, and if a man was inflamed with improperdesire he should put himself into water to cool off. Thechastity sf women was even more important. The polyan-dro us Drau padi each d ay became a virgin again fro m herfive successive unions until the last, so that each of thebrothers had her untouched. Modesty was insisted up on , an dboth bathing and sleeping naked were forbidden, with ex-ceptions in the stories of K rishna. It is strang e tha t, despite

the delight of ln d ia n li terature in sensual charm , the nuderarely appeared in Indian painting, and many statues withtheir full portrayal of the rounded female body yet suggesttha t it is clothed in a fine garm ent fastened at the wrists andankles.

WOMAN S LOTIn heroic times the epics depicted women desiring sexualunion as avidly as men, and sometimes they might be evenmore erotic. Th e sage Agastya formed a s uperb wom an fr omparts of different creatures, had her born to a king who waspining for a child, and when she was nubile he m arried her .The wife, Lopamudra, with long eyes and thighs like plan-tain stem s, discarded her fine clothes an d put on rags at herhus ban d s bidding. But when she had passed th rou ghmenstruation and had bathed, and was luminous with

beauty, Agastya summoned her to intercourse. HoweverLo pam ud ra, with folded hands an d blushing, a nd withlove-pleading w ords, asked the sage not only t o tak e her for thesak e of children b ut to give her as much pleasure as he fo un din her. He should lie with her on a fine bed, deck her withjewels, and ap proach her in garlands and ornam ents. This setthe husband on a search for wealth and adornment, andfinally he had to do everything that his wife wanted. She

said , you have do ne my every desire , a nd the hermit faith-fully lay with his wife who equalled him in virtue. 4T he nobility an d dignity of wom an is said to be fair, holy,

? Mahabharata 3.95 f .

23


31/285


and according to Dha rma . A faithful woman honoured herhusband above ascetics, she could work miracles, and had

her reward in the world to come. But the husband s dema ndswere stern, she should follow his law alone , and when som ehusbands w ere too harsh their wives foun d it hard t o bear.Women were honoured on the one hand, and on the otherthey could be accused of falsehood, trickery, unchastity, andbeing the essence of evil. Women were treated as chattelswhen girls were given as gifts, daughters sacrificed to savethe father, wives or daughters offered to satisfy the lusts of

guests.Th e Laws of Manu said tha t Day and night women mustbe kept in dependence by the males of their families, and ifthey attach themselves to sensual enjoyments they must bekept under one s control. A woman was protected by herfather in childhood, her husband in youth, and her sons inold age, but she was never fit for independence . W omenshould be guarded against evil inclinations, and employed inhouse hold, religious, an d com mercial duties. They should bekept fro m alco hol, sleeping a t unseasonable ho urs, ramblingab roa d, and other m en s houses. Many faults are attributedto th em , in texts clearly compiled by m en.5

Th e woman s hope was to bear children, since the m otherwas the centre of t he family. She was both th e physical an dspiritual teacher of her children, and many texts say tha t themother is the highest gu ru , she stands above ten fathers ,and there is no higher Dharma than truth and no guru to

equal the mother . M aternal love was a constant epic theme,and children both revered and loved their mother. Itfollowed tha t when children left home, or th e husband died,a wom an s lot was hard and it was said tha t widowhood isthe greatest sorrow .

W omen w ere often said to have declared tha t they wantedto follow their husband in death, but the widow-burning oflater times and particular regions seems to have had little

basis in classical days. T here is only one sure instance in themany tales of th e M aha bha rata an d one in the late seventhbook of the Ramayana. ati (suttee), faith ful , widow-

5 Laws of Manu, 9

4


32/285


burning was known in India before the Christian era, how-ever, and commented on by the Greeks. It developed in the

early centuries of our present era and spread to southernIndia by the tenth century, when it is said that sometimesthousands of a king's wives were burnt with his corpse.Afew H indu lawgivers an d poets condem ned the practice, butits abolition had to wait till modern times under nineteenth-century British imperial rule, though occasional instanceshave been reported in this century.

There is no doubt, despite some denials, that countless

widows were burnt with their husbands on the funeral pyre,sometimes willingly and sometimes forcibly. There a re manyreports by external observers, ranging fro m the eighteenth tothe twentieth centuries, and details may be found in par-ticular studies an d legal docu m ents. 6

The veiling and seclusion of women were particularIslamic customs, and will be considered under that religion.But the M uha m m ada n invasions of India , from th e eleventhcentury intensified restrictions upon women that werealready present by Brahminical laws and customs. In Hindusociety it was the m an , fa ther or hus ban d, who had com pletedisposal of the wom an, daughter or wife. T o this day manymen, especially Brahmins, are waited on hand and foot bytheir wives. According to tradition a Brahmin wife shouldrise first to wash herself and clean the house; only thenshould sh e wake her husb and , standing at a distance from hisbed (since they sleep in separa te beds, a nd in sep ara te roo m safter the first child is born). She bows with folded hands,saying 'Hail, Lord Krishna'. If she had time she mightworship his right big toe, marking it with sandalwood andoffering incense an d lights as to a go d.

However, sixty years ago a Brahmin lady who checkedwhat Mrs Stevenson was recording on these duties, saidlaughingly: 'Tha t is the way, no d oub t, that we ought to payour reverence to our husbands, but we have not time now-

adays In the m ornings all 1 have time to d o is to stand atthe bottom of his bed an d say: "Utha-U tha " (u p you get ),and a fter that I am fa r too busy cooking for him to have any

2 6 See E. Thompson Suttee 1928.

5


33/285

SEXU L MORALITY IN TH WORLD S RELIGIONS

time to w aste in worshipping If that was so in 1920, itis likely to be an even more widespread attitude today after

the great part that women have played in Indian social andpolitical movements. However, older women and villagewom en may keep some of the traditional customs, a nd thereis sometimes revival of the old a nd bad , as well as the old a ndgood , unde r nationalistic resurgence.

PROSTITUTIONIn the epics and classical Indian texts extra-marital sex, formen, was accepted as part of life. There were high-classcourtesans for male needs, and they were expected to beeducated in sixty-four arts and sciences and were theequivalent of Greek hetairae or Japanese geishas. Thecourtesans were women of high education, whose teachersshould be paid by the state, and their accomplishmentsincluded dancing, singing, acting, sewing, flower-arranging,and other useful an d domestic arts. T he cultured c ourtesansganikas) were distinguished from low-class and pro-

miscuous prostitutes kalutas).The contrasts of traditional Indian life were illustrated in

the opposition of the ascetic and the courtesan, or themarried heroine and the prostitute. Yudhishthira, therighteous king of the epic, not only had his wives and a sh arein the fair D rau padi, but he sent greetings to the fair-clad,ornamented, scented, pleasing and happy women of the

houses of joy . Accom panying R am a s arm y in search of hisfaithful wife Sita, were women that live by their beauty9,and these were not merely camp prostitutes but womenprom inent in the life an d affa irs of t.owns. W hen R am a wasto be consecrated as king his priest directed that everythingshould have a festal air, the temples be put in order and thedaug hters of pleasure be arranged in the royal palace.

On the other hand, revealing tensions of Indian life and

teaching, the epics also contained attacks on ordinaryprostitution. Brothels and drinking halls were to be heldincheck as harmful to the kingdom , and a harlot w as said to be

S. Stevenson, The Rites o f the T wice-bo rn,p 25 1

6


34/285


a hundred times worSe than a slaughter-house which des-troyed living beings. Thieves and criminals were associated

with prostitutes, and the Kama Sutra said that courtesansshould be attached t o police or powerful men t o protect themfrom being bullied.

Th e deva-dasis, god s servants , were high-class pros-titutes attached to the service of deities in Hindu tem-ples. Th is practice went back to ancient times an d developeduntil the end of the last cen tury. G irls were given to templesin childhood as a gift to the god, perhaps in the hope of

getting a son or some other benefit . They were said to bemarried to the deity, often Krishna or Shiva, and in a form alwedding ceremony they might be ritually deflowered by apriest or rich patron, or made to sit on a stonelinga. Thegirls were trained in erotic arts an d m ade av ailable to templevisitors, for a price. Because their duties included dancingan d singing, the danc e was often regarded as im mo ral untilmo dern refo rms tried t o purify it .

Temple harlotry in India became notorious, and pilgrimssom etimes complained th at they were hindered in worship bythe seductions of the temple girls. Large temples, especiallyin south India, often seemed like brothels to outside ob-servers, with hundreds of prostitutes who were taxed by thelocal states. Perh aps from this example of taxati on, lay pro-stitution was exploited as a source of private and publicincome.

Temple prostitution was closed by the British, with thehelp of Hindu reformers, along with the suppression ofwidow-burning. Earlier, under Muslim rule, professionalcourtesans who were not attached to Hindu templesspecialized in erotic dances and were very popular. Thesewere the nautch girls of India an d southern Asia, a nametha t was derived from the Hindi nach, m eaning to dance .In the present cen tury efforts have been m ade t o free dancesfrom erotic associations, and the classical styles have been

revived, by m ale dancers and also by w om en. M any templeshave preserved traditional dances, often only performed bymen with the female parts being taken by boys, and theperformers wearing masks to symboiize the gods or theirattendants.

7


35/285

SEXUAL MORALITY TH E WORLD S RELIGIONS

SEX M NU LS

T he sexual a rts were said to hav e been first promulgated bythe Lord of Creatures, Prajapati , and codified in a longtreatise which too k the example of the am orou s play of thedivine Shiva and Parvati. This mythical treatise was sup-posed to be the basis for numerous works on eroticism ofwhich only fragments survive, discussing courtship, sexualunion, married love, prostitution, texts mantras), spells,potions, aphrodisiacs, and special appliances. Later the

intercourse of Krishna and his paramour Radha were thesubject of m any e rotic writings and paintings.Th e most justly celebrated Indian erotic w ork, from which

many later writers borrowed, was the Kama Sutra, LoveText . This was attributed to a B rahm in priest, Va tsyayana,in the third o r fou rth centuryA.D. , and according to trad itionhe remained a lifelong celibate an d ascetic, thoug h it is hardto believe tha t he did not h ave the backing of som e personalexperience. The book is a masterly but abbreviated versionof m aterials fro m earlier trad ition , and it served as a patternfo r generations. It is primarily the book of the house holder,with instructions on sexual techniques, without mysticalideas of union with the deity through sex which may havebeen in the older tradition an d which appeared in later Ta ntra .

The Kama Sutra opened with the praise of Dharma,Artha, and Kama, which had been regulated in command-ments given by the Lord of Creatures in ancient texts. The

latter two, gain and love, should be studied in youth andD harm a in old age in order to obtain salvation. Kam a is theenjoym ent of a pprop riate o bjects by the five senses, assistedby th e mind a nd th e soul. T o the objection tha t sexual inter-course is practised even by animals and does not need anywork on the subject, the answer is given that it depends onmen and women, requires the application of proper means,an d differently fro m an imals it requires thou ght, for practice

at any season.The Kama Sutra maintains that women as well as menshould study its arts , girls as a prep aration for m arriage andafterwards with the consent of their husbands. It lists thesixty-four arts, mostly household but including reading,

8


36/285


poetry, and making mystical diagrams. For men there wasskill in sports, arms, and gambling. Courtesans would be

versed in these art s, but married wom en would increas e theirattractiveness thereby, and find means of support if theywere separated fro m their husba nds. Other teachings discussthe arrangements of a house, the daily life of citizens, andthe kinds of wo men a nd friends to be cultivated.

The central part of the Kama Sutra gives details ofpractices in sexual intercourse, distinguishing betweensuitable and unsuitable partners, different kinds of em-

braces, and varieties of kissing, pressing, scratching, andbiting. Women of different regions should be approachedaccording to their ow n customs, an d in equal , high , o rlow intercourse the partners sh ould lie in th e mo st pleasur-

abl e man ner. Details a re given of various positions, s om e ofwhich are acrobatic or require much practice, and maledominance appe ars when a man enjoys two women at thesam e t ime or many wom en together. Wom en may act thepa rt of m en, when their partners are tired o r fo r variety, butoral sex is reserved for eunuchs disguised as males orfemales, an d Vatsyay ana said that it should never be don e bya learned Brahmin o r by a ma n of good reputation , becausealtho ugh it was allowed by the texts there was n o reason forthe practice, o r on ly exceptionally.

Other parts of the Kama Sutra discuss courtship, bycreating confidence in the girl and by a girl seeking to gainover a man, betrothal , and forms of marriage. Then the

behaviour of a virtuous w om an is discussed, an d her con du ctduring her husb and s absence, but no t his. Th e wom en of aking s harem should attend t o his needs, an d a polygamousman should act fairly towards all his wives. Women shouldreject the advances of o ther men th an their hus band s, thoug hmen seek to gain other women, and a further section dis-cusses courtesans seeking out men, getting money, and theway to get rid o a weary lover. Concluding remarks discuss

personal ador nm ent , the enlargement of sexual organ s, lovephiltres, and magical potions. The Kama Sutra was com-posed for the benefit of the world, while the author wasstudying religion and engaged in the contemplation of thedeity.


37/285


The influence of the Kama Sutra and similar works uponsculpture, painting, and literature was of great social im-

portance, before the puritanism of recent times sought tocover all sex from public view or discussion. For nearly athousand years the Kama Sutra was the standard work onsex, both coition an d other relationships of men an d wom en.In ancient Indian society the sexes could mingle more freelythan they did later, there was pre-marital and extra-maritalsexual relationship, and while marriage was normal it wasoften polygamous, for men who could afford it . Women

were not secluded, as they were in zenanas an d ha rems underMuslim rule, although the later seclusion produced its owneroticism, with advantages to the male.

About the twelfth century Koka or Kokkoka set out toexpo und the pleasures of sex from his own experience, in theKo ka Sha stra or R atirahasya, the Secret Doctrine of Love sDelight . According t o legend a nym phom aniac appeared a tthe court of K oka s pa tro n, threw off her clothes, an ddeclared that since neither gods, demons, or men couldsatisfy her she would wander the world naked until she mether match. Koka joined his hands and asked permissionhum bly to tam e the shrew, which he did so forcibly that shefainted from repeated orgasms and was rid of desire for hernext seven incarnations. This Sh astr a is a han db oo k of love-making, discussing different types of women by their genitalcharacters, customs, and temperaments; courtship, em-braces, kisses, love-spells, and more detail than the KamaSu tra on coition a n d postures of intercourse.

In the sixteenth century the Ananga Ranga, the Stage ofthe Love G od , became o ne of the most influential erotictexts by showing how a married couple may pass throughlife in union . Sex was said to be disastrous o utside marriage ,but since the cause of such diversion was monotony andwan t of varied pleasures , the autho r showed how husband

and wife might live as with thirty-two partners by varying

into a s man y positions of intercourse, so tha t satiety becameimpossible. Physical enjoyment was essential, and with ithusb and and wife could live together as on e soul in a singlebody , which would ensure happiness in this life an d in theworld to come. Other unions were strongly forbidden: to


38/285


39/285

SEXUAL MORALITYIN TH WORLD S RELIGIONS

More sensual than the Song of Songs, yet intended fromthe first as an allegory of divine-human love in sexual

passion, the Gita Govinda is still sung regularly in southIndian temples and its author is considered as a saint. Itsrelationship to the Kama Sutra is shown by commentarieswhich explained some of its allusions by reference to theearlier text.

Religious love poetry in other Indian languages alsosuggested the influence of the Kama Sutra. In the fifteenthcen tury Vidyapati in Maithili and C ha nd i Das in Bengali des-

cribed the amours of Krishna and Radha in vivid terms.Vidyapati sang of the swelling breasts of Radha, the firsttortures of love, the agony of separation, and the con-sum m ation in which the god returned, loosened Rad ha sdress and Krishna makes love the whole night t h r o ~ g h . ~Chandi Das wrote in similar terms of the kisses andpassionate embraces of the divine lovers, followed byseparation, tears, an d reunion.

The religious reformer Chaitanya, in sixteenth-centuryRengal, took Krishna as the supreme deity and his highlypersonal religion was strongly opposed to the pantheism ornon-dualism o much Indian philosophy. Devotion toKrishna and Radha was central, expressed in passionateecstasy and symbolized by erotic love. Chaitanya himselfdressed as both Krishna and Radha, in male and femaledevotions, but some of his followers were said to have hadwom en concubines who were available fo r the attainm ent of

divine union. T o Ch aitany a himself only a few couplets areattributed, but his movement helped to develop Bengaliliterature and is still powerful. Largely owing to Chaitanyasacred sites associated with Krishna were restored, templeswere built a nd millions now visit them o n pilgrimage.

Sex an d religion inspired m uch Ind ian p ainting, especiallym iniature paintings of the fourteen th to nineteenth centuries.The Gita Govinda was illustrated in Punjabi and Kangra

pictures, depicting in graceful manner the walks, embraces,absence, longing, kisses, and union of the divine pair. Oc-casionally Krishna and Radha were shown in full sexual

? D. Bhattacharya, t r. LoveSongs o Vidyiipati 1963

32


40/285


intercourse, usually with Ra dha o n top, bu t fo r the paintersit was the lovers themselves rather than the sexual ac t which

was the chief concern. In m odern times George Keyt, of ShriLanka, who translated the Gita Govinda into English, haspainted Krishna as the divine lover, and in pictures of R ad haand the cowgirls he has shown delight in the female fo rm a ndin sensual rap ture .

More detailed illustrated sexual manuals, often calledKoka Sha stras, depicted the coital postures of th at popu lartext. These were m ade not on ly for private interest but often

to demonstrate the virility of the subjects. Indian princeswere shown copulating in the act of life , with o ne or m orewomen at a time, seated on camels or elephants, shootingguns, drinking tea, or sm oking pipes while copu lating. Therewere as many varieties as imagination could conceive andartistry depict, an d E urop eans , who always seemed t o wearhats and wigs if n othing else, were shown in fo rm al posturesthough not so acrobatically as Indians. Religious themesmight become obscured, or transferred to the ruler whosewives led the cram ped life of a harem an d whose rom ancecame through concubines and dancing girls, always youngand beautiful. But religious symbolism appeared in abstractways, with the yoni represented as a circle, a triangle, or alotus in a m and ala or pattern. T he sexual manu als an d eroticpictures might serve to intensify emotion, revive saggingpowers, prolong intercourse, and perhaps lead t o divine love.Song, music, pictures, a nd books could bring union with the

deity, though doubtless they often ha d m ore immed iate an dphysical purposes.

Sex and religion also combined in sculpture and archi-tecture. There had long been fertility symbols in the lingaand yoni, which have been representations of Shiva and hisSha kti down the ages an d a re seen in countless fo rm s today.In the medieval period there was a wave of temple-buildingwhich gave India som e of its greatest mon umen ts, an d many

of the decorations were explicitly sexual. E rotic temple sculp-ture w as ancient an d is still practised, n otably in Nepal, withornam ental coital grou ps. But of the great temples those ofKha juraho an d Konarak are among the most celebrated forsexual detail. Temples are usually dedicated to Shiva or


41/285


Vishnu, and they resemble palaces with the chief deityreigning over a court of gods and dancing girls. The

sculptures rise row upon row, the slim-waisted girls helpingthe m ovem ent, while their full breas ts and wide hips suggestthe bliss of union.

Many positions of sexual intercourse are displayed, andsome of the contorted poses seem almost impossible toachieve. In famous friezes the male lover seems to bestanding on his head and stimulating three women at thesam e time. Since the figures all app ear t o be calm, this m ay

be intended as a ritualistic perfo rmance , almost a yoga exer-cise, to be practised only by accom plished adepts . It has beensuggested, however, tha t the grou ps may be meant to de mo n-strate horizontal activities which had to be placed verticallyby the needs of architecture. But religious symbolism seemsto be obscured sometimes by sculptures with m ore mu nda nepurposes. The temple of the Sun God at Konarak, in parti-cular, depicts men with erect ling s being stimulated orallyby fema le attend an ts, perhaps t o excite their jaded appetitesan d those of the sculptors patro ns.3

These temples shock some modern feelings. WhenC G .Jun g visited Konarak in 1938 his Brahmin guide told him asa great secret that these stones are man s private parts .Jung was astonished that this obvious fact should beex-plained, either as if the ignorant European would not havethought of it, or as if the ordinary Indian would be tooashamed to say so. Fortunately Khajuraho and Konarak

have been preserved, partly because of the difficulty ofaccess in former times, and although there is still someembarrassment, and exploitation of them for tourists, thereis increasing recognition of their importance in Indianculture. 3

YOGA ND TANTRA

Th e Sanskrit word Y oga, related to the English yoke , camefrom a root meaning to join together or harness. It came to

O A Watts The Temple of Konarak 197 1 .Memories Dreams Reflections 1961 p 278 .


42/285

S A C R E D S E X IN I N D I A

indicate union or conjunction with something, and therewere other slight changes according to the context. Yoga

included various forms of discipline, of body and mind,practised in orde r t o gain co ntrol over the forces of one sown being, to o btain occult powers over natu re, a nd t o attainunion w ith C o d o r the universal Being.

Yoga came to be associated especially with the Samkhya,enu meration school of philosophy , providing practical

methods for the theory. According to Samkhya there weretwo orde rs of reality, Spirit (purusha) a nd N ature (prakriti).

Spirit was multiple, composed of innumerable monads ormale persons, somehow entangled in the material world orfemale Na ture. Salvation would com e by complete liberationfrom Nature and return to the original changeless state,beyond time an d space.

Samkhya-Yoga taught a system of yogic practice to gainthis liberation by eight stages of discipline, rather like theeightfold path of Buddhism. Some Yoga teachers developedancient Indian physiological ideas to provide a frameworkfo r their practices. There was said to be a grea t vein o f. thebody running up the spinal column. This vein, called thesu sh um na , contained six wheels (chakras) or concen-tratio ns of psychic energy at different poin ts along its length .At the top of the vein was a powerful psychic centre, sym-bolically referred to as a lotus, a female metaphor, situatedin the sku ll an d called sah as ra ra . In the lowest wheel was theserpent pow er , a male symbol called kunda lini, which was

generally quiescent. This serpent power should be aw akenedby yogic exercises and rise up the spinal vein, passingthroug h all the w heels of psychic fo rce to u nite with the top -most lotus. By arous ing this serpent power the yogi hop ed togain sp iritual energy a nd uniting it with the highest lotus wasthou ght to bring him salvation, though many yogis practisedthis arousal fo r the sake of supernatural powers rather th ansalvation.

The name Tantra was given to the teachings of certainHindu and Buddhist sects which worshipped divinities orbeings especially concerned with sexual energy, and ecstaticcults were inspired by visions of cosmic sexuality. Tantra isnot easy to defin e but the word was applied t o sc riptures, of


43/285

SEXUAL MORALITY IN THE WORLD S RELIGIONS

which there were many varieties, and it was perhaps derivedfrom a root meaning a thread , suggesting the male an d

female principles of which the universe is woven. The sectswere also called Shaktic, from their worship of the femaleSh akti o r divine energy, and also left-han d , from theirsecret or confidential nature and the manner in which thegoddess sat o n the left of th e god . T he tan tric texts give end-less dialogues of these two male and female deities, eachalternately teaching a nd asking questions of the oth er. T hesedialogues gave instructions in the meanings and practices ofrituals an d Y oga.

T an tra emerged in the early centuries of o ur era a s a verypopular movement, which affected philosophers and yogisand ordinary people, in rituals, ascetic practices, ethics,imagery, and literature. But it was probably much older; itwas non-Vedic an d ofte n in oppo sition t o the world-denyingphilosophy and monistic teachings of Hindu orthodoxy.Instead of suppressing pleasure as a danger or an illusion,T an tra revelled in it, as a means tow ards the highest goal.

It has been said that Tantra was the rediscovery of themystery of wom an, for every wom an became an incarnationof the Shakti, the divine woman and mother. In rituals thefem ale yogi, the yogini, was naked and aroused th e feeling ofterrifying emotion before the cosmic mystery of creation.Every naked woman incarnated Prakriti , Nature, and inritual she became the goddess, the Shakti. The Samkhyaphilosophy was prolonged o n to the mythological plane, w ith

the male Pu rusha , th e Spirit, motionless an d contemplative,before the active Pra kriti, the nourishing power.For Tantra the greatest energy was sexual and the sexual

org ans represented cosmic powers, a s symbolized in the lingaof Shiva. Some yogis worshipped their own linga, with fullritual, a nd sexual arou sal indicated th e coming of the divinepresence. T he snake was naturally a sym bol of sexual power,in the kundalini and other concepts. Similarly the femaleyo ni was worshipped, a nd m any sculptures depicted not onlythe female body b ut its prom inen t genitals.

Sexual intercourse (m aithun a) of any kind was treated in aritual fashion, between husband and wife, or differentpartners, or with a temple girl. Sexual union was trans-


44/285

S A C R E D S X I N I N D I A

formed in to a ceremonial throu gh which the hum an couplebecame a divine pair. The rite was prepared by meditationand ceremonies to make it fruitful, for bodily union alonewas n ot tho ught to be sufficient to bring salvation. T he actof sex was form al and not p romiscuous, an d coit ion was nota quick relief in orgasm but a long process in caresses anddifferent postures, for which the Kama Sutra and otherm anu als were of great help.

Som e Tantr ics sought to go beyond normal Hindu sexualcustoms and considered that taboos which were right for

others should be broken in order to gain unusual powers.Small groups met, often at night and sometimes in acremation ground, sitting in a magical circle or pattern.After for m al worship they would indulge in the Five M s,forbidden or restricted by others: alcohol (madya), meat(mamsa), fish (matsya), hand-gestures (mudra), and inter-course (maithuna). In extreme left-hand rituals the womanshou ld be menstruating at the time of intercourse, when herenergies were thought to be at the most dangerous peak.Enemies of left-handed Tantra have claimed that sexualorgies were regular practices, and since the ceremonies weresecret it was difficult to disprove the charge. Defenders ofTantra said that intercourse only took place betweenhusband and wife, but an eminent anthropologist providedevidence of other pairing and randorn coupling in recenttimes. New members were only admitted in pairs, and sincethe applicant s wife refused t o accompany him it w as not

until his ado ptiv e sister went with him th at he was accepted.This pair already broke the taboo of incest, since suchcoupling was sacrilegious but no t casual or prom iscuous. Atthe meeting the women discarded their bodices an d put themin a large vessel, an d during the course of th e hymn-singingthe presiding Guru called out the men one by one, givingeach a bodice chosen at random: this couple then retiredbehind a cu rtain to perform the ritual act of sex. j2 Prob ably

the num ber of such groups is now very small.

2 G. M. Carstairs in Aspects of Religion in Indian Society ed., L PVidyarthi, 1961 p. 6 7


45/285

SEXUAL MORALITY IN THE WOR LD S RELIGIONS

com m on fe ature of T antric coition was retention of thesemen, in coitus reservatus. To hasten the ascent of the

Kundalini bodily positions were varied with the aim ofachieving immobility of breath, thought, and semen. Thesemen bindu) was thought to have magical power, as insome Upanishadic texts. If it remained in the body, therewou ld be no fear of dea th, an d even if ejaculated in to the fireof the yoni it could be arrested and returned. Both the manand the w om an were thought to be able to recover their vitaljuices a nd reabsorb them so as to preserve life. It is possiblethat this practice came from China, and whether semencould be recovered or not, its retention demanded greatdiscipline an d practice. It was also a form of con tracep tion.

Tantric texts stated that all stages of sexual intercoursewere to be marked by intonation of texts mantras) utteredm any times over the various pa rts of the body of the beloved.Not merely erotic or promiscuous, this procedure providedritual and prolonged caressing and union, with the aim ofenabling the energies of male and female to pass into eachother. The comm-union of separate individuals was trans-cended in full union and inter-penetration, each holding theother. Sexual union thus provided a complete model of theunion of God and the soul. Since it was so profoundlyIndian, Tantra not only flourished in theistic Hinduism butalso in pantheistic, it developed in ascetic Buddhism, andsome of its methods were adopted by even more asceticJainism.

REACTION

In recent centuries there have been several reactions againstthe eroticism of ancient Ind ia, particularly its sculptures andlingas. The Mughal rulers were Muslims and usually icono-clastic. The fanatical Aurangzeb is said to have destroyedover two hundred temples in one year in one province, and

how many were devastated during his fifty years reign isunk now n. N ot only overtly sexual statues were dama ged butsimple nudes, such as the stone figures of Jain saints atGwalior which had their heads and penes knocked off. Theheads have now been restored, but in terra cotta .


46/285


Muslim puritanism was followed by Eu rop ean . T he AbbeDu bois, who wandered abo ut so uth Ind ia from 1792 to 1823

left m any vivid d escriptions, but stressed wh at he regarded asthe evil side of Hin duis m . Of th e ubiquitoush g of Shiva hewrote of obscene sym bols , the very nam es of which,am on g civilized natio ns, are a n insult t o decency . T he earlyBritish observers sometimes compared Hindu beliefs andsculpture with Greek and tried to understand them sym-pathetically, but rising enthusiasm for missionary e fforts ledothers to depict everything Hindu in the darkest colours.

Thu s Charles G ra nt , in 1792, wrote of the imm orality, theinjustice an d the cruelty of Hin duis m , an d its adherents asdepraved as they are blind, and as wretched as they aredepraved . '

As late as 1920, the otherwise fair-m inded M rs Stevenson,who tried to record the nobler side of ritual H indu ism ,spoke of the linga o f Shiva as the livery of his sham e , a ndto o im pur e to write here . But in 1970 the R om an C atholic

lay scholar R . C . Zaehner remarked tha t

Siva s sym bol is an d always has been t he phallus. Onc eagain we are faced with a discordant concord and a con-cordant discord; but perhaps it is Hinduism that sees theconco rd m ore clearly tha n does Augustinian C hristianity,which has been too hasty in its rejection of the throes ofm atter from which life and consciousness ultimatelyderive. j

The influence of Victorian England was powerful uponeducated and reforming Hindus, who adopted thepuritanism of their rulers and sometimes became even morerigorous and world-denying. G andhi s puritan fervour led himto advocate a severe chastity, which deprived his wife ofsexual intercourse for years, though the M aha tm a is said t ohave tested his ow n restra int by sleeping with young girls.Arecent Indian writer says that Victorianism, Brahmo

J . A Dubois, Hindu Manners Cus tom s and Cerem onies 111 V ; n dsee P J . Marshall , ed. , The British

geoffrey parrinder - sexual morality in the world%27s religions

Documents