A History of Sanskrit Literature c9.s5.1

c9.s5.1

Vātsyāyana's *Kāmasūtra*² is of uncertain date, but it is not improbably older than Kālidāsa, and in any case it represents the concentrated essence of earlier treatises on the Ars Amoris. There is no question of the importance of knowledge of this topic for the writers of erotic poetry, and there is abundant proof that the *Kāmasūtra* was studied as eagerly by would-be poets as were grammar, poetics, and lexicography. To Vātsyāyana we owe a vivid conception of the Indian parallel to the man about town (*nāgaraka*) whose existence was due to the growing elaboration of Indian life, and whose interest the poet was anxious to propitiate. We see him,³ opulent, a denizen of the town which lends him his name, or, if compelled by adverse fortune to vegetate in the country, seeking, like Martial in his retreat from Rome, to find congenial society with which to continue the pleasures of his town life. His home boasts all the luxury of the age, soft couches, a summer house in a park, seats strewn with flowers, and swings to amuse the ladies who share and lend zest to his leisure moments. Much of his time is devoted to his toilet; he must bathe, be anointed, perfumed, and garlanded; then he can teach the cage birds which surround him to speak, or enjoy the brutal spectacle of ram or cock fights, both favourite amusements of the gilded youth of the period. Or, in the company of ladies of the demi-monde, he may visit the parks outside the town, returning home crowned with the flowers which they have plucked. There are concerts to be attended, ballets and theatrical spectacles to be visited; he has a lute beside him so that he may make music when he will, and a book to read at leisure. Boon companions and hangers-on of various ranks, the Viṭas, Pīṭhamardas, and Vidūṣakas of the texts, are essential to his happiness, and drinking parties are not unknown, but the ideal forbids mere rude licence; even in his enjoyments the man about town aims at elegance, moderation, and a measure of dignity. He condescends to the use of the vernacular, but blends it with Sanskrit, thus indicating his fine culture. Hetairai are essential to him, but they also are not without accomplishments; indeed the *Kāmasūtra* demands from them knowledge encyclopaedic, including poetic taste. The most famous of them achieved great riches, as we learn from the description of the palace of the heroine in the *Mṛcchakaṭikā* and, as in the Athens of Perikles, discussions on literature, music, and art, must often have afforded the participants a pleasure which could not be expected from their own wives, from whom they demanded children and care for their homes.