Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/88

 The point to observe is that the Hindus do not contemn any phase of the impulse that unites man to woman. They cannot jeer at love, for the whole of their religious traditions forbid such profanity. To make lovers and love-making a subject for jesting is impossible.

In the "Seven Hundred Maxims of Hala " are some passages revealing the fervid and passionate nature of early Hindu love:—

"He sees nothing but her face, and she, too, is quite intoxicated by his looks. Both, satisfied with each other, act as if in the whole world there were no other woman or man."

The following maxim treats of the evanescent quality of passion:—

"Love departs when lovers are separated; it departs when they see too much of each other; it departs in consequence of malicious gossip; aye, it departs also without these causes."

On the beauty of women Hindu poets are eloquent. The Lotus Woman, the embodiment of the perfect physical ideal of feminine loveliness, is thus described in "The Kama Sutra":—

"She in whom the following signs and symptoms appear is called a Padmini: Her face is pleasing as the full moon, her body, well clothed with flesh, is as soft as Shiras or mustard flower; her skin is fine, tender, fair as the gum or lotus, never dark coloured. Her eyes are bright and beautiful as the orbs of