Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s2.75

c5.s2.75

the first two lines of the verse quoted above, Kālidāsa has translated the ideas of Vātsyāyana but in the third line he has followed our author verbally. On the authority of this agreement evidently Mahāmahopādhyāya Hara Prasād Śāstri has also expressed the opinion that Kālidāsa's "knowledge of the Kāmaśāstra was very deep indeed."¹ Dushmanta's words in Act V of Śakuntalā—"नागरकवृत्त्या शान्त्यैनाम्" shows that Kālidāsa has used the word nāgaraka there in the full sense imparted to it by Vātsyāyana in his section called Nāgarakavṛttam, viz., a city-bred man skilled in speech and love-making. There is moreover, a set of sūtras in Vātsyāyana's chapter on Kanyāvisrambha which reminds the reader at once of the first act of Kālidāsa's Śakuntalā as will be seen from the translation here given: "When a girl sees that she is sought after by a desirable lover, conversation should be set up through a sympathetic friend (sakhi) who has the confidence of both; then she should smile with head bent down; when the sakhi exaggerates matters, she should take her to task and quarrel with her; the sakhi, however, should say in jest, 'This was said by her,' even when she has not done so; then when the sakhi is set aside and she is solicited to speak for herself, she should keep silent; when, however, this is insisted upon, she should mutter sweetly, 'O no! I never say any such thing' in indistinct and half-finished sentences; and she should, with a smile, cast occasional side-long glances at the lover, etc."² From what we have said above, there can be no doubt that the Kāmasūtra was known to Kālidāsa and that he