They sing incoherent songs and
mingle lustfully with one another, indulging the while in the freest
speeches. How then can virtue have a place amongst the Madrakas who are
arrogant and notorious for all kinds of evil acts? No one should make
friends with a Madraka or provoke hostilities with him. In the Madraka
land there is no friendship. The Madraka is always the dirt of humanity.
Amongst the Madrakas all acts of friendship are lost as purity amongst
the Gandharakas and the libations poured in a sacrifice in which the king
is himself the sacrificer and priest. Then again, it is truly seen that
wise men treat a person bit by a scorpion and affected by its poison,
even with these words: 'As a brahmana that assists at the religious
ceremonies of a Shudra suffereth degradation, as one that hateth
brahmanas always suffereth degradation, even so a person by making an
alliance with the Madrakas becometh fallen. As there is no friendship in
the Madraka, so, O scorpion, thy poison is nought.' With these mantras of
the Atharvan I have duly performed the rite of exorcism. Knowing this, O
learned one, hold thy tongue, or listen to something further that I will
say. Those women that, intoxicated by spirits, cast off their robes and
dance, those women that are not attached (to particular individuals) in
the matter of intercourse and that they do as they please without owning
any restrictions, I say, that being as thou art the child of one of those
women, how canst thou, O Madraka, be a fit person for declaring the
duties of men? Those women that live and answer calls of nature like
camels and asses, being as thou art the child of one of those sinful and
shameless creatures, how canst thou wish to declare the duties of men?
When a Madraka woman is solicited for the gift of a little quantity of
vinegar, she scratches her hips and without being desirous of giving it,
says these cruel words, 'Let no man ask any vinegar of me that is so dear
to me.
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