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Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s5: Sports and Festivities

Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra c8.s5

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Sports and Festivities

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Besides the various sports and amusements that enlivened the daily life of the *nāgaraka*, there were many high days and holidays when he made merry with his friends and companions. With regard to all these games and festivities enjoyed in company, Vātsyāyana gives the sage advice that they can be relished best in the company of friends of the same social status, but not with those that are either above or below one, because permanent good relations and mutual understanding can only be established when each party in a sport seeks to afford pleasure to the other and where each is honoured and respected by the other.¹

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¹ समसायाः सहक्रीड़ा विवाहाः सङ्गतान च । समानैव कार्याणि नोशमैरपि वाऽधमैः ॥ परस्परसुखाखोदा क्रीड़ा यत्र प्रयुज्यते । विशेषयकी चात्योन्त्य' संबन्धः स विधीयते ॥—Ibid, p. 190 (*sūtras* 22 and 25).

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Vātsyāyana classifies the occasional festivities into five groups. In the first place he mentions the festivals in connection with the worship of different deities (*samāja*, *yātrā* and *ghaṭā*), sometimes attended with grand processions; then come the *goṣṭhīs* or social gatherings of both sexes; next *āpānakas* or drinking parties and *udyāna-yātrās* or garden-parties, and last of all various social diversions in which many persons take part (*samasyā krīḍā*).²

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² घटाभिस्रवने, गोष्ठीसमवायः, समापानकम्, उद्यानगमनं, समस्याः क्रीड़ाय प्रवर्तयेत् ।—Ibid, p. 49 (*sūtra* 26).

Samāja

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At the temple of *Sarasvatī*, the goddess of learning and the fine arts, on a fixed day every fortnight, that is, on the *tithi* or lunar phase specially auspicious to the deity worshipped, a *samāja* or an assemblage of *nāgarakas* was held regularly. They were accompanied by musicians, dancers and other artists permanently employed by them for performances in honour of the deity. Besides, when any itinerant parties of actors, dancers or other such "artists" visited the town, they were afforded an opportunity of showing their skill at the temple before the divinity. On the day following the performance the party had to be given their stipulated rewards, and then they might be dismissed or asked to repeat their performances at the pleasure of their patrons. On special occasions, when performances on a grand scale were arranged, parties of actors might co-operate with each other and give a joint performance and it was the duty of the corporation or guild (*gaṇa*), to which the *nāgaraka* belonged, to honour and treat with hospitality the strangers who attended these gatherings. Similar festivities of various kinds were held on a grand scale in honour of different deities according to the customs appertaining to each.¹ On some of these occasions there were processions (*yātrā*) like the procession of images that Fa-Hien saw in Khotan when "they swept and watered the streets inside the city, making a grand display in the lanes and by-ways."² In these processions both men and women joined and Vātsyāyana says that they afforded opportunities for meeting one's lady-love.³ Even a virtuous matron could attend a religious ceremony with the permission of her husband.⁴

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¹ पक्षस्य मासस्य वा प्रभातेऽहनि सरस्वत्या भवने नियुक्तानां नित्यं समाजः। कुशीलवाद्यागन्तवः प्रेक्षकाश्चमर्षा दद्याः। द्वितीयोऽहनि तेभ्यः पूजा नियतं लभेसन्। ततो यथाश्रद्धमर्षा दर्शनमुत्सर्गा वा। व्यसनोत्सवेषु चैषां परस्परसैककाव्यता। आगन्तूनां च कृतसमवायानां पूजनमभ्यपस्र्तिं ति गणधर्मीः। एतेन तं तं देवताविशेषमुद्दिश्य संभावितस्थितधोर्विविधा घटा व्याख्याताः। — Ibid, pp. 49-51 (*sūtras* 27-33).

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² Legge, *Fa-Hien*, p. 18.

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³ स तु (समागमः ) देवताभिगमने यात्रायामुद्यानक्रीडायां विवाहे यज्ञव्यसनोत्सवेषु भ्रातृपाते चौरविभ्रमे जनपदस्य चकारोद्यमे प्रेक्षाव्यापारेषु तेषु तेषु च कार्येषु। — *Kāmasūtra*, p. 274 (*sūtra* 41).

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⁴ आबाहे विवाहे यज्ञे गमनं सखीभिः सह गोष्ठौ देवताभिगमनमित्यनुज्ञाता कुर्यात्। — Ibid, p. 226 (*sūtra* 15).

Goṣṭhī

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We now come to the *goṣṭhī* or social gathering where the *nāgaraka* diverts himself in pleasant talk with persons of the same status and position as himself by their education, intelligence, character, wealth and age; there he engages in competitions in making verses or in various other sports of skill and art.¹ Affording, as these *goṣṭhīs* did, opportunities for the *nāgaraka* to exhibit his intellectual accomplishments and mastery of the arts, they were most popular with him, being attended by him every afternoon and they were also held on a comparatively large scale on special occasions. Of the branches of literary art in which competitions were held, we may glean the following from Vātsyāyana’s list of the sixty-four arts: there were competitions in the extempore composition of verses, completion of a stanza of which a part only was given, the proper reading of books, with proper intonation and accent, either singly or in groups, the reading of passages in prose or verse that on account of many harsh sounds were hard to pronounce, and the art of composing and expounding passages written in a secret code or cypher. These competitions required knowledge of foreign tongues and provincial dialects, knowledge of lexicons and specical vocabularies, of metres and the figures of rhetoric, the knowledge of dramas and their stories, in short, a very comprehensive litererary and artistic training. One game is described called *pratimālā* in which a number of persons had to recite verses one after another, the condition being that every reciter must repeat a verse commencing with the letter with which the previous speaker's verse ended and any one unable to supply his verse sufficiently quickly had to pay a forfeit. Besides these literary competitions, there were tests of proficiency in the fine arts such as painting, singing, instrumental music and the like and also of manual skill and dexterity in many of the practical arts such as the stringing together of flowers in a garland and so on.¹

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¹ वेश्याभवने सभायामम्यतमस्यवसति वा समानविद्याशिल्पिवित्तवयसां सह वेश्याभिरनुरूप- लाप रासनम्यी गोष्ठी। तत्र चैषां काव्यसमस्या काव्यासमा च।—Ibid, p. 51 (*sūtras* 34 and 35).

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¹ मानसी काव्यक्रिया, काव्यसमस्यापूरणम्, पुस्तकवाचनम्, संपाठ्यम्, दुर्वाचकयोगाः, ले खित-विकल्पाः, देशभाषाविज्ञानम्, अभिधानकोषः, छन्दोज्ञानम्, नाटकाख्यायिकादर्शनम्, प्रतिमाला। गीतम्, वाद्यम्, नृत्यम्, आलेख्यम्; माल्यग्रथनविकल्पाः, शेखरकापीडयोजनम्, etc.—Ibid, p. 32.

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At these gatherings were invited *gaṇikās* or brilliant artists who by their education and knowledge of the arts, could please the *nāgaraka* by meeting him on his own ground, viz., in mental and aesthetic culture, and who were therefore loved and honoured by the people. Sometimes the parties were held at the house of one of the *gaṇikās*, or the *nāgarakas* met at each other's house, or they assembled in the *sabhā*, the public hall of the city or of the *gaṇa* or corporation to which every citizen belonged. Here the citizens came together to discuss politics and philosophy, or to hold competitions in literature or art, or merely to enjoy themselves in convivial parties. This *sabhā* of Vātsyāyana is the direct descendant of the *samiti* or *pariṣad* of the Vedic times, at one of which, viz., that of the Pañcālas, Svetaketu Āruṇeya, who is reputed to be the founder of the science of erotics, was defeated by a Kṣatriya.²

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² तत्रासन्नला लोककान्ताः पूज्याः प्रीतिसमानाक्षारिताः ; Ibid, p. 52 (*sūtra* 36). For Svetaketu, see ibid, p. 5 (*sūtra* 9); also, श्वेतकेतुर्ह वा आरुणेयः पंचालानां परिषदमाजगाम; *Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad* vi. 2. 1, and श्वेतकेतुर्हारुणेयः पंचालानां समितिमेयाय; *Chāndogyopaniṣad*, v. 3. 1.

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At the *goṣṭhis* were also discussed the sixty-four *Pañcāla* or *kāma-kalās* and Vātsyāyana declares that a person possessing a knowledge of this sixty-four, even though devoid of all the other sciences, leads the talk at the *goṣṭhis* of men and women; and on the other hand, a person who speaks cleverly on other subjects but knows not the sixty-four, is not much respected in the discussions in the assembly of the learned.³

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³ न वन्नयन्थास्त्राणि चतुःषष्टिविवर्जितः । विद्वत्संसदि माल्यर्थं कथासु परिपूज्यते ॥

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At the *goṣṭhī* one is neither to speak too much in Sanskrit for he may then be considered a pedant, just as in England two centuries ago to write English in strict accordance with orthography and syntax was considered not necessary for a gentleman; nor should the *nāgaraka* speak too much in a local dialect, because then he ran the risk of being regarded as uneducated and uncultured; he should strike a middle course and have full control over both and then he was sure to win great respect.¹ The prevalent language of the period as seen in inscriptions and in the Mahāyāna literature, bears testimony to the fact that the current speech at the time, at least among the cultured classes, was a mixture of Sanskrit and Prakrit. The learned people like Aśvaghoṣa, of course, wrote pure Sanskrit, but the language of conversation among the educated was apparently a mixture of Sanskrit and the provincial dialect (*deśabhāṣā*) as recommended by the author of the *Kāmasūtra*.

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¹ नात्यन्तं संस्कृतनैव नात्यन्तं देशभाषया । कथां गोष्ठीषु कथयेल्लोके बहुमतं भवेत् ॥—Ibid, p. 58 (*sūtra* 50).

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There were *goṣṭhīs* for sinister purposes too in the days of Vātsyāyana who warns the *nāgaraka* against frequenting an assembly that is disliked by the people, that is not governed by proper rules and hence is likely to indulge in license or to run beyond the bounds of decency; nor should he attend a *goṣṭhī* that is intent upon doing mischief to others. A person wins success in life by attending an association that makes the imparting of pleasure to people its sole business and has sport and diversion for its sole object.²

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² या गोष्ठो लोकविद्विष्टा या च सर्विसपिथी । परहिंसासिका या च न तामवतरेद् बुधः ॥ लोकचित्तानुवर्तिन्या क्रीडामात्रं ककार्यथा । गोष्ठया सह चरन् विवत्लोके सिवि' नियच्छति ॥—Ibid, p. 58 (*sūtras* 51-2).

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वर्जितोऽप्यव्यविचारनिरतया यस्ततः 'क्षतः ।
स गोष्ठयां नरनारीणां कथास्वयं ॥—*Kāmasūtra*, p.182 (*sūtras* 50-51).

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The *goṣṭhī* on account of its association with art, refinement and culture, was much appreciated by the people in Vātsyāyana's times. A *nāgaraka* was expected to be liberal in spending on *goṣṭhīs* and his success in courtship and love depended in no small measure on his power to shine in the sports and festivities including the *goṣṭhī* and *samāja*.¹ In Bhāsa's dramas we meet with many references to *goṣṭhī*; his *Avimāraka* mourns the supposed loss of his friend who was humorous at *goṣṭhīs*.²

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¹ कविराख्यानकुशलो—विविधशिल्पज्ञो—घटागोष्ठीप्रवणकसमाजसमसाक्रीडनशीलो—अमद्यप इति नायकगुणाः।—Ibid, p. 302 (*sūtra* 12).

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² गोष्ठी हास्यः, Trivandrum Series, p. 69.

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Women also met together in *goṣṭhīs* or social assemblies among themselves. For an unmarried girl it was considered a qualification that she was fond of *goṣṭhīs* and *kalās*. Married ladies also sometimes, with the permission of their husbands, instituted among their own friends *goṣṭhīs* or social gatherings where they discussed artistic and literary matters. But a married woman who was too fond of instituting *goṣṭhīs* was looked upon with suspicion, specially one who arranged such gatherings in the house of a youthful neighbour.³ In Bhāsa's *Avimāraka* (Act V) the maids invite the *Viḍūṣaka* to recount a story which they would listen to among their *goṣṭhījanas* in the inner court.⁴

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³ गोष्ठीकलाप्रिया चैति नायिकागुणाः—*Kāmasūtra*, p. 303 (*sūtra* 13); सखीभिः सह गोष्ठी—p. 226 (*sūtra* 15); तरुणप्रतिवेश्यगृहे गोष्ठीयोजिनी—p. 254 (*sūtra* 52).

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⁴ इमं मन्त्रिण चडक्याल' पविर्सिअ गोष्ठीजणेण सह वण्त' सुणामि, Trivandrum Series, p. 86 मूद मन्त्रिण चडक्याल' उवविसिअ गोष्ठीजणेण सह सुणामि, p. 87.

Āpānaka

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Besides the *goṣṭhīs* the *nāgarakas* also met at each other's house to hold drinking parties where they drank various kinds of liquors with sauces of various tastes and flavours, but abstention from wine was considered a special qualification in a nāgaraka.¹

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¹ See footnote 1, p. 160 and footnote 1, p. 167.

Garden Parties

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Next we come to another diversion which was very dear to the soul of the nāgaraka, viz, udyāna-yātrā or picnics in gardens. Every great city in those days was surrounded by extensive gardens where the residents of the city could find some relief from the congested streets of the town. Round Kapilavastu, says the Lalitavistara, five hundred gardens sprang up for the diversions of Bodhisattva, and prince Siddhārtha went out through the gates of the city for enjoying himself in the gardens outside.² In the Kāmasūtra also we find that these gardens were outside the town and a whole day was spent in the picnic there. Early in the morning a party of well-dressed nāgarakas would go out of the town mounted on horses accompanied by gaṇikās and followed by servants ; there they would arrange for their daily meal and pass the time in pleasant games of chance or in diverting themselves with the fights of cocks, quails or rams or in any other way that they pleased, in the afternoon they would return wearing some token of remembrance of the picnic such as a bunch of flowers or a twig from a garden-tree. Similar parties were enjoyed in connection with sports in water, which took place in artificial lakes or tanks from which all mischievous water-animals had first been removed.³ Picnicking in the gardens outside the city was very popular in the days of Vātsyāyana who again and again speaks of it. His description of *udyānayātrā* agrees in every particular with that given in *mṛcchakaṭika*, the only difference being that in the drama, Cārudatta goes out in a bullock-cart instead of on horseback. A *nāgaraka's* liberality was often tested by his readiness to spend on these garden picnics and dramatic performances. A king who has many wives is advised by Vātsyāyana to please every one of them by such shows and garden-parties.¹ Unmarried girls, and even married women, sometimes went to these picnics; a virgin on her way to a garden-party was sometimes snatched away from her friends and guardians for the purposes of marriage.² Ladies perhaps went on such picnics in parties of their own sex, because Vātsyāyana says that *udyāna-yātrās* afforded opportunities for meeting and making offers of love to them.³ But picnics arranged by married women appear to be rather rare. It was only a *punarbhū*, that is, a widow who had attached herself to a second husband, that induced her adopted lover to institute these picnics and convivial assemblies at which she herself took part.⁴

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² पञ्च चोद्यानशतानि समन्तान्नगरस्य प्रादुर्बभूवबोधिसत्त्वस्य परिभोगाय ।—Lalita-vistara, (ed. by Lefmann), vii. 95 ; बोधिसत्त्वस्य पूर्वेण नगरद्वारेणोद्यानभूमिमभिनिष्क्रामतो महता व्यूहेन etc. Ibid, xiv. 183-191.

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³ पूर्वाह्न एव खलु'कास्त्वरगाधिरूढा वैश्याभिः सह परिचारिकानुगता गच्छेयुर्दैवसिकीं च यात्रां तत्र'वानुभूय वाक टलावक्सिपयुञ्ज्यातैः प्र चाभिरनुकूलं यथेष्टितैः काल' गमयित्वाऽपराह्णे गृहीतपद्यद्यानोपभोग-चिह्नास्तथैव प्रत्याव्रजेयुः । एतेन रचितोद्‌दीदकानां ग्रीष्मे जलक्रीडागमनं व्याख्यातम् ।—Kāmasūtra, p. 53 (sūtras 40-41).

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¹ प्रद्योदानत्यागशीलः।—Ibid, p. 253 (sūtra 50); उद्यानगमनेः—एकैकामुरञ्जयेत्।—Ibid, p. 245 (sūtra 89).

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² ग्रामान्तरमुद्यानं वा गच्छन्तीं विदित्वा सुसंभृतसहायो नायकस्तदा रक्षिणो विवास्य हत्वा वा कन्याम-पहरेदिति विवाद्योगाः।—Ibid, p. 222 (sūtra 27).

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³ Ibid, p. 258 (sūtra 6); also p. 274 (sūtra 41).

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⁴ Ibid, p. 239 (sūtra 44); also p. 240 (sūtra 59).

Samasyā-Krīḍā

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Last of all we come to the sports that Vātsyāyana calls *samasyā-krīḍā* or *sambhūya-krīḍā*, that is social diversions in which a number of persons took part. He says that they varied with each country and province. Of about a score of them he has given only the names from which their character may sometimes be surmised. Some of them are well-known up to the present day, at least in parts of India, such as *Kaumudī-jāgara*, in which the whole night of the full moon in the month of Āśvina is passed without sleep by playing at dice or similar other amusements, and the *Holākā* or *Holi* on the day of the vernal full moon in the month of Phālguna; such is also the *Alola-caturthī* or *Hindolotsava* in the month of Śrāvaṇa. The *Hallisaka*, accompanied by dancing and music and supposed to be similar to the *Rāsotsava* described in the *Bhāgavata-Purāṇa*, is referred to by Vātsyāyana and a form of it is still current in Kāthiāwād. The festival of *Suvasantaka* reminds us of the *Dule-vasantiyā* of the Sitabenga Cave-Inscription which tells us that at this "swing-festival of the vernal full-moon, frolic and music abound and people tie around their necks garlands thick with jasmine flowers."¹ We are also reminded of the *Kāmadevānuayāna* of Bhāsa's *Cārudatta* (Act I) and of the *Madanodyāna yātrā* of Bhavabhūti's *Mālati-Mādhava* (Act I). It appears that persons of both sexes took part in many of these festivities. At such festivals as *Kaumudī-jāgara*, *Suvasantaka* and *Aṣṭamī Candraka*, the women of the cities and towns entered the harem of the king and sported with the royal ladies there.²

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¹ Dr. T. Bloch, "Rāmgarh Cave Inscriptions," *Report of the Arch. Sur. of India* (1903-1904), pp. 124-25.

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² See *Kāmasūtra*, p. 54 (*sūtra* 42) and p. 283 (*sūtra* 11); for *Hallisaka* cf. हलीसकक्रीडनकेगायननर्तनादिसर्वैः: 1—p. 175 (*sūtra* 25) and see *East and West*, i, pp. 748ff. (May, 1902).

Sports of Girls

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Some of the sports of girls have been described by Vātsyāyana, as well as some of their playthings. The girls took delight in making garlands of flowers, building small houses of earth, of wood, playing with dolls, or in cooking imaginary food with such materials as earth etc. They sometimes played games of chance with dice or cards, or other games like "odd and even," the game of "close fists" and so on; or they might play the game of finding out the middle finger or the sport with six pebbles; sometimes a number of girls played together at games involving some exercise of the limbs (*Kṣveḍitakāni*) such as hide and seek, spinning round holding each other's out-stretched arms, blindman's buff, games with salt or heaps of wheat.¹ We see from this list that many of these sports and games are much the same as those in vogue at the present day among Indian girls and boys.

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¹ *Kāmasūtra*, p. 201 (*sūtras* 5-7).

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The games and festivities of the *nāgaraka* are, as we see from the description given above, the diversions of a seeker after pleasure and amusement—of one that had plenty of leisure to enjoy and an ample fortune to provide the means of enjoyment. Among manly sports, wrestling matches were known to Vātsyāyana, but the *nāgaraka* appears to have been rather a spectator at these games than one who took an active part in them; the *Kāmasūtra* also speaks of hunting as a pastime that becomes a source of pleasure by practice, when one has acquired some skill in it and this seems to be the one manly sport that the *nāgaraka* knows of.²

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² मल्लयुद्धं — Ibid, p. 84 (*sūtra* 57) ; भीतिः साम्वासिकी च या मृगयादिषु कर्मसु ।— Ibid, p. 90 (*sūtra* 2).

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