210	INDIA IN KALID ASA
with the words sivdst? pcinthantih Sttnttt1 (May your path lie free from dangers!;.
When brothers and equals met they generally embraced2 or shook hands3
with each ether. To those at a distance, words of endearment and well-being
were conveyed4 (joga ksemani).
While talking to an elder or to a socially superior person one slightly bent
forward and spoke with chosen phrases and polite manners.5 While request-
ing something, an inferior joined his hands and then addressed his superior.6
family delations
Family ties spring up from marriage. We read of very tender bonds of
family affection. Nf.tu rally, since the begetting of a male child was considered
so very important, he was loved with the deepest affection. When the child
crawled about on all its fours and then stood up and walked with the help of
his nurse7 (dhdtn\ it was a scene for the eyes of the father. When it stammered
out its first words8 and sat restlessly in the lap of its father, what a joy the con-
tact meant to the latter !9 This is why a parting with the son was painful and
brought tears to the eyes of many a royal father,10 howsoever impassible. The
death of a son in the life-time of the parents almost killed them.11 A daughter
although not so important with regard to inheritance and funeral obsequies,
was yet the recepient of ample affection from parents, brothers and other kins-
men. She was considered to belong to a different family12 to which she was
added as a wife, and her parting made her parents cry.13 Act IV of the Sdkun-
tala is full of such references.
Of other members of a family we read of brothers,14 elder and younger,
loving affectionately, of sisters15 well cared for by brothers, daughters-in-law16
loved by the father-in-law and mother-in-law, of the ideal relations of husband and
wife,17 of maternal uncles,18 of the kinsmen both on the side of the father19 and
mother,20 of uncles21 and of the affection existing between the father and son22,
and the mother and son.23	«
The children of the kings and nobles were entrusted to the care of nurses24
who suckled and fed them and trained them to walk and speak.25
.) p. 148.
75.
4 Afi/., p. 68.    C
*TLagbu.9 V. 32.
6	Ibid., II. 64.
7	Ibid., III. 25.
8sra*fifad ^> Ibid.
9 Ibid.,    26.
10	Ibid., XL 4.
11	Ragbu., IX. 78.
t3 ?mf f| ^TF TOfcT tp SaL, IV. 21.
wlbkl, Ibid, pp. 133, 136; Kit., VI. 92.
14 — as Common-place.
M R^gto., III. 25.
25 Ibid,