The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c11.s2.9

c11.s2.9

When temples of Hindu gods came to be built and endowed on a magnificent scale, some people began to feel in course of time that there should be singing girls attached to shrines to play music on the occasion of the different services and worships of the day. The custom of the association of dancing girls with temples is unknown to Jātaka literature. It is not mentioned by Greek writers, and the *Arthaśāstra*, which describes in detail the life and duties of dancing girls, is silent about it (II, 27). The custom, however, had come into vogue by about the 3rd century A. D.; for Kālidāsa refers to dancing girls present in Mahākāla temple of Ujjayinī at the time of the evening worship (*Meghadūta*, I, 35). Several Purāṇas also recommend that arrangements should be made to enlist the services of singing girls to provide vocal and instrumental music at the time of divine services. These singing girls were usually prostitutes, and we are pained to find that some of the Purāṇas should have gone to the extent of recommending the purchase of beautiful girls for their dedication to temples¹. One Purāṇa goes to the extent of saying that the best way to win Sūryaloka is to dedicate a bevy of prostitutes to a solar temple².