Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s4.25

c8.s4.25

In the afternoon, after he has dressed himself, the *nāga-raka* goes out to attend a *goṣṭhī* or a social gathering where he engages, as we shall see below, in pleasant intellectual diversions with his friends and in tests of skill in the various arts. At night-fall, our *nāgaraka* enjoys music, vocal and instrumental, occasionally attended with dances. After music, in his own room which has been made sweet and clean and gay with flowers, and while its fragrant air is charged with the breath of sweet incense circulating through it, the *nāgaraka* with his associates and friends, awaits there the arrival of his mistress. This completes his daily life.¹