Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s6.t6: Education of Women
Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra c8.s6.t6
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Education of Women
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The fact that the mistress of the house was expected to keep the daily accounts, to prepare the annual budget of receipts and expenditure, and supervise in general over the purse, proves, beyond a doubt, that women ordinarily were literate. Besides, from what Vātsyāyana says, it is apparent that an ordinary woman could receive and reply to love letters smuggled into ear ornaments, chaplets or garlands made of flowers carried by female messengers (*patrahāridūtī*). Such love letters not infrequently contained verses and songs having special reference to the beloved and replies were obtained from her.² Unless women had some education, this would be without meaning.
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² Ibid, p. 274 (*sūtras* 38-40); p. 276 (*sūtra* 51) : p. 279 (*sūtra* 60); also यत्र संप्राप्तस्यास्य...दद्यानां गीतवस्तुकानो...च निधानम्। प्रत्युत्तरं तथा दतं प्रपद्यत् ।—p. 292, (*sūtras* 20, 21).
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Higher education (*śastragrahaṇa*), however, was not so common among them, as Vātsyāyana himself says that women did not ordinarily get any education in the *śastras*, but our author avers that the daughters of kings and nobles, as also the *gaṇikās*, were highly educated and "had their intelligence trained and sharpened by the *śastras*," and he advises that a woman might learn either the whole or a part of the work (*śastra*) composed by himself from a person who by character and attainments could be trusted.³ The sixty-four subsidiary sciences that had to be studied along with the *Kāmasūtra*, included many that required, as we have seen, no inconsiderable proficiency in *belles lettres*, in the humanities in general. Such accomplishments as extempore composition of verses (*mānasi-kāvyakriyā*) and the completion of fragmentary verses (*kāvyasamasyāpūraṇam*) required a ready facility in versification that could be acquired only by a highly educated girl; and such sports as *pratimālā* required the memorising of a large mass of verses and good literature. In Vātsyāyana's opinion a knowledge of the *Kāmasūtra* with its subsidiary sciences would be useful to all women, both high and low, rich and poor. A poor woman who on account of the absence of her husband, finds herself in great distress and difficulty, might earn a decent living even in a foreign country by means of the knowledge of these sciences. A woman whose husband has been away from home without making provision for her, is advised by Manu also to live by the arts, by such *śilpas* as have nothing reprehensible in them. On the other hand, Vātsyāyana affirms that, a daughter of wealthy parents, if accomplished in the arts, might win the affection of her husband even if he happens to have a large number of wives. We see, moreover, from Vātsyāyana's work, as well as from contemporary literature, that a knowledge of the arts was considered necessary for all women.¹ The bride for Prince Siddhārtha was required, according to his father, to be "versed in the sacred literature (*śāstra*) and skilled in the arts, even like a Gaṇikā."² The carama-buddha could be born only of a mother "versed in many sciences," and Māyādevī satisfied this requirement; besides, she was well skilled in the arts.³
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³ Ibid, pp. 28-30.
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¹ Ibid, pp. 32-41, cf. प्रोषितलविधायं व जीविच्छस्त्रैर्विहितैः ।—Manu, ix. 75.
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² शास्त्रे विचित्रा कुशला गणिका यथैव ।—Lalitavistara (ed. by Lefmann), xii.
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³ वद म तायाः पण्डितायाः ।—Ibid, iii. 25, कलाश्चचपा ।—iii. 27.
Linked texts (1)
- Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit