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16 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
I
him in your bondage.
“Any timid action on your part would be fit for new brides whose eyes are closed through shame.
“What though this hero be, great by his exalted glory, yet ‘great is the might of woman.’ Let this be your firm resolve.
“In olden time a great seer, hard to be conquered even by gods, was spurned by a harlot, the beauty of Kasi, planting her feet upon him.
“And the great seer Visvamitra, though plunged in a profound penance, was carried captive for ten years in the forests by the nymph Ghritaki.
“Many such seers as these have women brought to naught, how much more then a delicate prince in the first flower of his age ?
“This being so, boldly put forth your efforts that the posterity of the king’s family may not be turned away from him.
“Ordinary women captivate simple men; but they are truly women, who subdue the nature of high and hard.”
§ 10. The Failure of the Women to Win the Prince
Having heard these words of Udayin, the women strung to the heart, rose even above themselves for the conquest of the prince.
But even with their brows, their glances, their coquetries, their smiles, their delicate movements, the girls of the harem did not feel sure of themselves.
But they soon regained their confidence through the command of the family priest and the gentle temperament of the prince, and through the power of intoxication and of love.
The women then set upon their task and made the prince wander in the woods like an elephant in the forests of Himavat, accompanied by a herd of females.
Attended by women, he shone in that pleasant grove, as the sun surrounded by Apsaras in his royal garden.