Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c6.43

c6.43

Of the countries included in the Udīcya division by Indian writers, Vātsyāyana mentions Bāhlīka which the commentary explains as a country in Uttarāpatha,¹ that is, in the northern region. About the ladies of the Bāhlīka country (*Bāhlīkadeśyāḥ*), the *Kāmasūtra* informs us that they, like the women of the Madhyadeśa, were of decent habits and averse to kissing and similar unclean practices.² Vātsyāyana also speaks of a very peculiar custom which the Bāhlīka country had in common with Strīrājya and the province of Grāmanārī: he avers that in these countries several young men were married to a single woman (*ekakasyāḥ parigrahabhūtāḥ*) and they were in the same position there as ladies in the harem in other countries³ Vātsyāyana does not say exactly that these male spouses were confined in a harem by their lordly wives but that they had the same character as harem-ladies (*antaḥpuradharmāṇaḥ*) that is, as the commentary explains, they had all to confine their services to the single lady who was their mistress and had to attend upon her either singly or in batches.⁴ This rather unusual custom, no doubt refers to a system of polyandry carried to a refined excess. It was perhaps on account of the corrupt practices of the Bahlīkas that they were characterised in the Great Epic as forming the very dregs of the earth.¹