The Colas c28.17

c28.17

The class of courtesans has always held a considerable place in Indian society. From pre-historic times the nautch-girl has been a great social attraction. Her public appearances were usually associated with religious festivals and she was generally an expert in music and the dance. She mixed freely with men and was under no obligation to observe the restraints imposed on matrons in their social intercourse. Her private company was given to select friends, and her choice was guided at least as much by sentimental and aesthetic as by mercenary motives. To judge by the evidence of literature and epigraphy, there is little to justify the squeamishness with which the institution is viewed by the 'social reformer' who derives his notions from the hideous traffic in helpless women and girls that has grown up in large modern cities. At her best the courtesan led a life of cultured ease and pleasure, and like her Greek cousin, the hetaera, provided amusement and intellectual companionship to those who could afford the luxury; at her worst she was a temple-drudge who, when she consented to serve a passing stranger, still believed that she was performing an act of worship. The testimony of Muhammadan writers is clear and unanimous that the earnings of the courtesans attached to temples were surrendered into the hands of the priests or other authorities of the temple for defraying the expenses of worship.³⁵ As these writers, however, were prone to repeat uncritically statements made by their predecessors, we should be slow to accept their evidence, which is not confirmed by indigenous sources.