Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c7.80

c7.80

All these ascetics, male and female, belong to the fourth stage of life, inasmuch as they had avowedly renounced the world, though some, as we see from what Vātsyāyana says of them, might have been persons of questionable morals. But we must remember that Vātsyāyana has occasion to speak of them only as persons who were likely to be of help (sahāya) to Nāgarakas and their mistresses and besides, to courtesans, in carrying their messages of love, as they had easy access to houses of citizens, and even to the antaḥpura or the inner apartments of the ladies.² It is, besides, a dilemma for a courtesan to solve whether it would be right conduct (dharma) for her, or the reverse, to reciprocate the feelings of an avowed ascetic like a Brahmacārin or a Liṅgin, when it becomes apparent that love unrequited would bring about his death:³ one way she would be guilty of abetting a breach of the vow of chastity, and the other way, she would make herself responsible for the death of a holy man, as the Commentary explains.