Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c7.47.3

c7.47.3

Such an officer is the G a v ā d h y a k ṣ a who had access to cowherdesses.⁶ The S ū t r ā d h y a k ṣ a, the Superintendent of spinning and weaving, had dealings with widows, helpless women and female mendicants⁷ who spun yarn for the Government and brought it to him for his approval and also for their wages; Kauṭilya gives a fuller list of such women—"Widows, cripple women, mendicant or ascetic women (pravrajitā), women compelled to work in default of paying fines (daṇḍa-pratikāriṇī), mothers of prostitutes, old women-servants of the king, and prostitutes (*devadāsī*) who have ceased to attend temples on service, shall be employed to cut wool, fibre, cotton, panicle (*tūla*), hemp and flax,"¹ The P a ṇ y ā d h y a k ṣ a - the Superintendent of merchandise-the same as the *Paṇyādhyakṣa* of Kauṭilya, has dealings with women in the course of purchase and sale of various articles².