20. Beauty And Brahmin - 2

At night, the girl arrived as usual. The wife saw her, and let her sneak up the stairs. After a while, the wife too went up, and put her ear to the room's door. She heard sound of laughter. Enraged, she banged at the door and asked the Brahmin Narayan to open up.

The Brahmin said from inside: We won't open the door. This isn't your business. Go away.

The wife replied: You have always been a philanderer, but we haven't met (slept together) for the last six months. You expect me to be content only with food and clothing (that you provide) and carry on? Am I not young?

The Brahmin replied: You have a two-year-old son. I am no more indebted to you, I do not want to sleep with you.  Now scram, otherwise you would get a thrashing.

The wife was helpless, she stepped down and sat weeping under the stairs.

The news spread across the city. Within a short period, four-five other Brahmins were enamoured with the lass. She told this to her patron, and asked: what should I do? The Brahmin Narayan said: You don't need money. So tell each of those who desire you: I will sleep with you, but you must hand me your sacred thread (yadnyo-pa-vit).

The other suitors of the girls readily agreed to this bargain. She slept with them in return for the thread. This went on for two years.

The governor came to know about the plight of Narayan's wife. He sent a Kotwal (police chief) to his house. Kotwal and his men found the Brahmin with the lass. Both were arrested.

Next morning, they were brought to the court. When people started slandering Narayan, the Bhangi girl said: He alone isn't guilty. Many (other) Brahmins of the city visited me. I only took their threads, police may go to my house and check. A pot full of threads was indeed found, there were about 175 of them.

The Brahmin (Narayan) said to the governor: I had a son from my wife, my marital life is over. Now I may be allowed to leave the city with this girl. Governor gave them the permission; both of them bid adieu to Jhansi.

But now the governor was worried: (almost) the whole city had sinned. Then it was decided that expiation must be carried out. Cow's urine was brought, and all the brahmins underwent expiation. 

So it once happened in Jhansi.

 

19. Beauty And Brahmin - 1

Jhansi is in Bundelkhand; water here isn't good for men. It breeds too many impotent men. A quarter of the men are impotent. 

I saw some men: the wife lusts after a stranger, she asks the husband to invite him over. Then she befriends the stranger, meets him by herself, and makes love to him. There were many instances of this.

I heard and wrote down in my note-book a tale: It happened in Jhansi in the time of Madhavrao II. A Brahmin, one Narayan, once saw a woman of Bhangi caste (toilet cleaners' caste) with her 15-year-old daughter when he came out of latrine. The Brahmin had studied the tradition of love-making, he thought that the girl must be what scriptures define as "Padmin", an extremely beautiful lass.

The Brahmin said to the girl's mother: don't marry off this girl, instead, I will keep her. She won't lack for anything, nor would you. But don't tell anyone about this.

The Bhangi woman agreed. Then the girl started visiting Brahmin's place every midnight, they would make love, and she would depart before the day-break. The Brahmin's wife became suspicious; (she thought) never before he let eight months pass without sleeping with me, we made love (at least) once a week. He has got some whore now, she has possessed him. Then one day, Brahmin's wife stayed up to keep watch below the first-floor room (where the Bhangi girl used to meet the Brahmin).