SECTION III
The days of greatest enjoyment for the Four Classes
Having thus laid down the four classes of womankind, Kalyana Malla, the arch-poet, proceeds to give a table of the time in which each order derives the greatest amount of pleasure from the venereal rite. These periods must be learnt by heart, and students will remember that on the other days not specified, no amount of congress will satisfy passions. Read, then, and master the elements.
Table
Pratipada 1st day |
Dvitiya 2nd day |
Chaturthi 4th day |
Panchami 5th day |
Satisfy the Padmini |
Shasbati 6th day |
Ashtami 8th day |
Dashami 10th day |
Dwadashi 12th day |
Satisfy the Chatrini |
Tritiya 3rd day |
Saptami 7th day |
Ekadashi 11th day |
Trayodasi 13th day |
Satisfy the Shankhini |
Navami 9th day |
Caturdashi 14th day |
Purnima Full Moon |
Amavasya New Moon |
Satisfy the Hastini |
SECTION IV
Of the hours which give the highest enjoyment
Women, be it observed, differ greatly in the seasons which they prefer for enjoyment, according to their classes and temperaments. The Padmini, for instance, takes no satisfaction in night congress; indeed, she is thoroughly averse to it. Like the Surya Kamala (day-lotus) which opens its eyes to the sunlight, so she is satisfied even by a boy-husband in the bright hours. The Chitrini and the Shankhini are like the Chandra Kamala, or night-lotus, that expands to the rays of the moon; and the Hastini, who is the coarsest, ignores all these delicate distinctions.
The following tables, then, show the Pahar, or watch of the night and day, during which the four classes of women derive the greatest pleasure.
Table I
Regulating the Night Hours
1st Pahar6-9 p.m. |
2nd Pahar9-12 p.m. |
3rd Pahar12-3 a.m. |
4th Pahar3-6 p.m. |
“ |
“ |
“ |
The Padmini |
The Chitrini |
“ |
“ |
“ |
“ |
“ |
The Shankhini |
“ |
The Hastini |
The Hastini |
The Hastini |
The Hastini |
Table II
Regulating the Day Hours.
1st Pahar6-9 p.m. |
2nd Pahar9-12 p.m. |
3rd Pahar12-3 a.m. |
4th Pahar3-6 p.m. |
The Padmini |
The Padmini |
The Padmini |
The Padmini |
“ |
“ |
The Hastini |
The Hastini |
And here it will be observed that the Chitrini and the Shankhini derive no satisfaction from day congress.
Thus did the arch-poet, Kalyana Malla, relate unto Ladkhan Rajah how women are divided into four classes, each of which has its own peculiarity of body and mind, and its several times of enjoyments, according to the state of the moon and the hour of the day or night.
Footnotes
1 Evidently the nervous temperament, with due admixture of the bilious and sanguine.
2 A lofty tree with soft and fragrant pollen.
3 The Yoni the feminine opposite to the Linga (Priapus) or male apparatus.
4 See note, chap. iv., on the Hindu ideas of human sperm, and for the vermicules of the Yoni, chap. iii., sec. 3.
5 Usually known as the Indian cuckoo, though its voice is harsh and disagreeable; in poetry and romance it takes the place of the bulbul of Persia, and the nightingale of Europe.
6 The sanguine temperament.
7 Meaning excellent as that of the Peacock, which is not disliked by the Hindus as by Europeans. They associate it with the breaking of the rainy monsoon, which brings joy to the thirsty earth and sun-parched men.
8 The bilious temperament.
9 So Apollonius of Rhodes, describing the passion of Medeia, says:–“The fire which devours her, attacks all her nerves, and makes itself felt even behind the head in that spot where pain is most poignant when an extreme fervour seizes on all the senses.”
10 “Elephant”-woman, because the animal being called the “handed one,” from the use of the trunk, and Hastini corresponds with Karami, from kara, a hand. She is “mulier nigris dignissima barris,” and of the lymphatic or lowest temperament. These divisions represent, we have noted, roughly and unscientifically, the four European temperaments, nervous, sanguine, bilious and lymphatic. In a future chapter, the three Hindu temperaments will be discussed.
11 The days (Tithi) are those of the lunar fortnight: the Pratipada, for instance, being the first, when the moon’s increase and wane begin.
12 As amongst the classics, day and night are divided by the Hindus with eight watches, each of seven ghari, or hours (1 ghari = 241).