Travels in India (Tavernier) 24.2.3

24.2.3

There are so many public women in the town, the suburbs, and in the fortress, which is like another town, that it is estimated that there are generally more than 20,000 entered in the Darogha's register, without which it is not allowed to any woman to ply this trade. They pay no tribute to the King, but a certain number of them are obliged to go every Friday with their governess and their music to present themselves in the square in front of the balcony. If the King be there they dance before him, and if he is not, an eunuch signals to them with his hand that they may withdraw. In the cool of the evening you see them before the doors of their houses, which are for the most part small huts, and when the night comes they place at the doors a candle or a lighted lamp for a signal. It is then, also, that the shops where they sell tári are opened. It is a drink obtained from a tree, and it is as sweet as our new wines. It is brought from 5 or 6 coss distant in leather bottles, upon horses which carry one on each side and go at a fast trot, and about 500 or 600 of them enter the town daily. The King derives from the tax which he places on this tári a very considerable revenue, and it is principally on this account that they allow so many public women, because they are the cause of the consumption of much tári, those who sell it having for this reason their shops in their neighbourhood.