Page:Love in Hindu Literature.djvu/82

68 VI. THE DIGNITY OF SEX. formed by Hindu girls before marriage are adapted to the growing sex-consciousness about tiie age of pubescence. The Rama^legends and Shiva-legends are as full of such romantic little- episodes as the Radha- Krjshna stories, and these stories are no mere library- studies but are integral parts of life. And among the most popular Vikram-adityan legends, e.g., those told by thirtytwo images, the. man in the street is familiar with the anecdote of the great romantic love between Kam Kandhla and Madho, which in its tragic intensity reminds one of Laila and Majnun. Such love-stories have not been tabu in Indian life and thought.

The Hindu knows how the God of Gods wants to be a cultivator and tiller of the soil. Shiva's consulta- tion with his consort ParvatI (lit. Mountain's Daughter), Parvatl's lending a helping hand to everything he does, the little altercations between the two, and things like that constitute no small part of the poetry of actual life in India, One of the most touching is the story of Parvati's putting on a pair of conch-shell bracelets. These bracelets are the emblems of married life to be put on so long as the husband is alive. The story has thus a most sacred association with all married women. It acquires its specially romantic character from the fact that it is Shiva, the husband of ParvaH, who has come in the disguise of a pedlar to sell these bracelets. ParvatI meets him and Shiva is trying the bracelets on her hands but condemns her as being too stiff-muscled. There is a good deal of humour in this little action.

There is a " comedy of errors " also in Shaiva literature. The Hindu knows the story of Shiva's