ings of ancient times. A
foremost one among Brahmanas, venerable in years while reciting old
histories, said these words, blaming the Vahikas and Madrakas, 'One
should always avoid the Vahikas, those impure people that are out of the
pale of virtue, and that live away from the Himavat and the Ganga and
Sarasvati and Yamuna and Kurukshetra and the Sindhu and its five
tributary rivers. I remember from the days of my youth that a
slaughter-ground for kine and a space for storing intoxicating spirits
always distinguish the entrances of the abodes of the (Vahika) kings. On
some very secret mission I had to live among the Vahikas. In consequence
of such residence the conduct of these people is well known to me. There
is a town of the name of Sakala, a river of the name of Apaga, and a clan
of the Vahikas known by the name of the Jarttikas. The practices of these
people are very censurable. They drink the liquor called Gauda, and eat
fried barley with it. They also eat beef with garlic. They also eat cakes
of flour mixed with meat, and boiled rice that is bought from others. Of
righteous practices they have none. Their women, intoxicated with drink
and divested of robes, laugh and dance outside the walls of the houses in
cities, without garlands and unguents, singing while drunk obscene songs
of diverse kinds that are as musical as the bray of the ass or the bleat
of the camel. In intercourse they are absolutely without any restraint,
and in all other matters they act as they like. Maddened with drink, they
call upon one another, using many endearing epithets. Addressing many
drunken exclamations to their husbands and lords, the fallen women among
the Vahikas, without observing restrictions even on sacred days, give
themselves up to dancing. One of those wicked Vahikas,--one that is, that
lived amongst those arrogant women,--who happened to live for some days
in Kurujangala, burst out with cheerless heart, saying, "Alas, that
(Vahika) maiden of large proportions, dressed in thin blankets, is
thinking of me,--her Vahika lover--that is now passing his days in
Kurujangala, at the hour of her going to bed." Crossing the Sutlej and
the delightful Iravati, and arriving at my own country, when shall I cast
my eyes upon those beautiful women with thick frontal bones, with blazing
circlets of red arsenic on their foreheads, with streaks of jet black
collyrium on their eyes, and their beautiful forms attired in blankets
and skins and them