Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s6.t6.3

c8.s6.t6.3

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