Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s5.t2.16

c8.s5.t2.16

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