Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c7.45

c7.45

Vātsyāyana mentions a number of government officials, but there is nothing to indicate their caste. Their position in society, however, appears to suggest that they must have belonged to the higher castes, but they need not necessarily have belonged to the Brahmin or the Kṣatriya castes. We find that the R ā ṣ t r i y a or governor appointed by the emperor Candragupta Maurya, in Western India, was the Vaiśya Puṣyagupta and the man holding the same position in Aśoka’s time was the Yavana Tuṣā-pa, while Rudradāman’s governor was the Pahlava Suviśākha², of foreign extraction no doubt, but thoroughly Indianised.