Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c6.196

c6.196

of Bengal. Thus the *Nātyaśāstra* which is much earlier than *Kāvyādarśa*, mentions four styles (*pravṛttis*),—Āvantī, Pañcāla-madhyamā, Dākṣiṇātyā and Oḍra-Māgadhī,¹ of which the last two correspond to the Vaidarbhī and Gauḍī styles of Daṇḍin² and it is apparent that what Bharata calls Oḍra-Māgadhī or the style of Orissa-Magadha is called Gauḍī or Paurastyā by Daṇḍin, and Bharata expressly tells us that his Oḍra-Māgadhī flourished in Bengal, Orissa, Magadha, Prāgjyotiṣa, Tāmralipta and the adjoining countries³. That this Oḍra-Māgadhī is identical with Gauḍī is made clear by Rājaśekhara who shows the connection between the earlier and the later ways of enumeration; he says that in the countries Aṅga, Vaṅga, Suhma, Brahma, Puṇḍra, etc. the *Oḍra-Māgadhī Pravṛtti* and the *Gauḍīyā Rīti* were prevalent and he cites in this connection a verse describing the Gauḍa ladies (*Gauḍāṅganāsu*).⁴ There can, therefore be no doubt that the G a u ḍ i r ī t i of the rhetoricians refers to B e n g a l.