KAMA SUTRA : PART4-CHAPTER -1 On the manner of living of a virtuous woman, and of her behaviour during the absence of her husband

A virtuous woman, who has affection for her husband, should act in conformity
with his wishes as if he were a divine being, and with his consent should take
upon herself the whole care of his family. She should keep the whole house well
cleaned, and arrange flowers of various kinds in different parts of it, and make
the floor smooth and polished so as to give the whole a neat and becoming
appearance. She should surround the house with a garden, and place ready in it
all the materials required for the morning, noon and evening sacrifices.
Moreover she should herself revere the sanctuary of the Household Gods, for,
says Gonardiya, `nothing so much attracts the heart of a householder to his
wife as a careful observance of the things mentioned above'. 

Towards the
parents, relations, friends, sisters, and servants of her husband she should
behave as they deserve. In the garden she should plant beds of green
vegetables, bunches of the sugar cane, and clumps of the fig tree, the mustard
plant, the parsley plant, the fennel plant, and the xanthochymus pictorius.
Clusters of various flowers such as the trapa bispinosa, the jasmine, the
jasminum grandiflorum, the yellow amaranth, the wild jasmine, the
tabernamontana coronaria, the nadyaworta, the china rose and others, should
likewise be planted, together with the fragrant grass andropogon schaenanthus,
and the fragrant root of the plant andropogon miricatus. She should also have
seats and arbours made in the garden, in the middle of which a well, tank, or
pool should be dug.
The wife should always avoid the company of female beggars, female Buddhist
mendicants, unchaste and roguish women, female fortune tellers and witches.
As regards meals she should always consider what her husband likes and
dislikes and what things are good for him, and what are injurious to him. When
she hears the sounds of his footsteps coming home she should at once get up
and be ready to do whatever he may command her, and either order her female
servant to wash his feet, or wash them herself. When going anywhere with her
husband, she should put on her ornaments, and without his consent she should
not either give or accept invitations, or attend marriages and sacrifices, or sit in
the company of female friends, or visit the temples of the Gods. And if she
wants to engage in any kind of games or sports, she should not do it against his
will. In the same way she should always sit down after him, and get up before
him, and should never awaken him when he is asleep. The kitchen should be
situated in a quiet and retired place, so as not to be accessible to strangers,
and should always look clean.

In the event of any misconduct on the part of her husband, she should not
blame him excessively, though she be a little displeased. She should not use
abusive language towards him, but rebuke him with conciliatory words, whether
he be in the company of friends or alone. Moreover, she should not be a scold,
for, says Gonardiya, `there is no cause of dislike on the part of a husband so
great as this characteristic in a wife'. Lastly she should avoid bad expressions,
sulky looks, speaking aside, standing in the doorway, and looking at passersby,
conversing in the pleasure groves, and remaining in a lonely place for a long
time; and finally she should always keep her body, her teeth, her hair and
everything belonging to her tidy, sweet, and clean.

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