Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c7.83

c7.83

To the Vānaprastha we have absolutely no reference at all, as the recluse in the forest was beyond the scope of the Kāmaśāstra even as a helper in the course of love. Moreover, it seems that this Brahmanical institution of the third Āśrama was going out of vogue. The *Vaikhānasa Dharmapraśna* tells us, that it was Brāhmaṇas alone who passed through all the four stages, the Kṣatriyas went through only three, and the Vaiśyas two—the stages of the student and the householder¹. The Śūdra, apparently, was a householder throughout. The Great Epic shows the Kuru elders as passing to the forest life, but none of them emerged out of it into the life of the *Yati* or the *Parivrājaka* which was reserved for the Brahmins alone. Due to the influence of Buddhism and Jainism and the innate religious tendency of the Indian mind, there were many ascetics in the country—the *Liṅgins* of Vātsyāyana, but very few of them appear to have come through the regular course of four stages as prescribed in the *Dharma-śāstras*. It seems that the third *āśrama*, that of the Vānaprastha, was going out of vogue in Indian society by the time that Vātsyāyana wrote his book, though of ascetics of various denominations there was no dearth at any time.