Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c7.25

c7.25

Vātsyāyana's work amply demonstrates the fact that sacrificial performances still formed an important element in the Brahmanical faith, in as much as the setting up of large and costly fire-places or Agni-caityas is considered a popular form of public service along with the erection of temples, excavation of tanks, laying of parks and building of bridges etc.⁴ The sacrificial performances on a large scale (yajña) afforded one of the common occasions on which it was permissible for ladies to go out of their inner apartments (antaḥpura)⁵ to take part in the public or private festivities. Again, the utility of religious or scientific treatises (*Śāstra*) for the performance of concrete practical works like sacrifices (*yajñas*)¹, is referred to by Vātsyāyana, and moreover, he adds that priests officiating at sacrifices (*yājñikāḥ*), even though ignorant of grammar, were able to apply at the sacrificial rites (*Kratus*) the principle of *ūha* or drawing of inference which depends upon a knowledge of grammar². These sacrificial festivities which the maidens went out of their homes to join, also afforded opportunities, according to Vātsyāyana, to a youngman for choosing his partner for life and winning the love of the girl of his selection³. At the sacrificial festivities again, the amorous lover sought for an opportunity of arranging a rendezvous with his mistress with the help of a female go-between⁴. Thus we observe that *Gṛhya* or household sacrifices like those performed at the household fire of the Śrotriyas, as well as the more elaborate *Śrauta* rites on a large scale, formed common occurrences in the society that Vātsyāyana depicts.