Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c7.71

c7.71

Of the second stage of life, Vātsyāyana says that after getting one’s education one should enter into the life of the householder (Gārhasthya), that is, one should marry and settle down as a Nāgaraka¹. As the Kāmasūtra occupies itself entirely with this period when one enjoys life, Vātsyāyana has very little occasion to speak of the third and fourth āśramas of the Vānaprastha and the Yati respectively But he speaks of the Lingins—that is, ascetics who wore the special marks and garments of their respective sects.² Female ascetics find more prominent mention as Pravrajitā, Śramaṇā, Kṣapaṇikā, Tāpasī, Bhikṣukī, Muṇḍā etc.³ Of these, as we shall show hereafter, the Śramaṇā appears to be the Buddhist nun and the Kṣapaṇikā, the Jain Sādhvī, while the Tāpasī seems to belong to the Brahmanical faith. The name Pravrajitā appears to be applied to female ascetics in general. The Pravrajitā sometimes earned a living, as we have seen, by spinning.⁴ In the case of the Bhikṣuka⁵ and the Bhikṣukī it is difficult to decide whether these are Sanscritized forms of the Buddhist Bhikṣu and Bhikṣuṇī, or mean religious mendicants in general. In the inscriptions of the Sātavāhanas who were not very much anterior to Vātsyāyana, as well as of the contemporary epigraphic records of the Kṣaharātas, we find permanent endowments being made sometimes in favour of Buddhist Bhikṣus and sometimes again, in favour of Bhikṣus of all denominations. For example, Vāsiṣṭhiputra Śrī-Pulumāvi records a grant⁶ to Buddhist Bhikṣus of the Bhadāyaniya sect, while Usavadāta, the son-in-law of the Kṣaharāta ruler, Nahapāna, records in a rock-cave at Nāsik that he had made a gift of some land for the Bhikṣus coming from all quarters, that is, as Senart translates, "From it food will be procured for all monks, without distinction, dwelling in my cave."¹