Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.82

c8.82

Vātsyāyana, though he speaks above of sham astrologers yet gives it as his decided opinion that a girl should be sought for, and also given away, when signs and omens, and portents and voices (*upasruti*), are favourable³, and to support himself, he also quotes the earlier authority of Ghoṭakamukha, who says that marriages should not be contracted on human choice alone⁴, that is, *daiva* or superhuman tests should be applied by both the parties, in order to be satisfied that happiness and prosperity would result from the match. We must remember that the age of Vātsyāyana was the age of the growth and development of Indian astronomy which was hardly ever dissociated from astrology, when as a result of this alliance between science and pseudo-science grew up that large body of *Siddhānta* works culminating in the great books of Varāhamihira—the *Pañcasiddhāntikā*, the *Brhatsamhita*, and the *Brhajjātaka*.⁵ Though faith in extra-human tests in marriage had been in favour since the time of the *Gṛhyasūtras* as the *Mānava Gṛhyasūtra*, the *Kausikasūtra* and the others testify,¹ yet they seem to have been more popular than ever before in the age of Vātsyāyana who presses into service even *upaśrutis*—supernatural oracular voices heard as a result of mystic invocations of Gods or sometimes miraculous utterances heard specially at night, as the Commentary explains².