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Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s7.t5: Crafts

Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra c8.s7.t5

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Crafts

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In a society where both men and women wore ornaments, it was quite natural that the crafts of the jeweller (*maṇikāra*) and goldsmith (*sauvarṇika* or *suvarṇakāra*) should prosper. The *nāgaraka*, when going to his club or to his garden picnic, wore ornaments and the king did so on his formal visit to the queens every afternoon.⁵ The statues that have come down from this age bear this out. It was, however, the demands of the ladies, who could not appear before their husbands without having ornaments on, that furnished the amplest occupation to the goldsmith and the jeweller. Some of the ladies decorated their whole person with ornaments. Those who could not afford to have pure gold ornaments had to be satisfied with those made of an inferior kind of gold alloyed with an inferior metal. Beyond a general mention of the *alaṃkāras* Vātsyāyana does not name other ornaments than rings which are very frequently referred to as tokens of love presented by lovers to each other.¹ The *Lalitavistara* mentions a ring worth several lacs and a pearl necklace that was worth many times that sum. Cārudatta's wife also had a pearl necklace given to her by her parents worth a lac.² The testing of jewels and coins (*rupya-ratna-parīkṣā*) was a useful art in this community and Vātsyāyana knows a *Vaikatika*, a diamond-cutter, whose craft was to purify or refine precious stones.³ Plates and other vessels made of the precious metals, gold and silver, are mentioned by Vātsyāyana and were evidently often used in the houses of the rich while those made of the baser metals, copper, bell-metal or iron, were used by ordinary people; moreover, vessels made of earth, split-bamboo, wood and skins were in very general use.⁴

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¹ सार्वाधिकोऽलङ्कारयोगौ, p. 341 (*sūtra* 26); सहिरण्यभागामल'करवाम्।—Ibid, p. 341 (*sūtra* 27). About rings see ibid, p. 241 (*sūtra* 80); p. 261 (*sūtra* 21); p. 274 (*sūtra* 35); p. 292 (*sūtra* 20), etc.

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² अनेकशतसहस्रमूल्यम् मौक्तिकम्।—*Lalitavistara*, xii, 142; कोटिशतसहस्रमूल्यं च मुक्ताहारम्।—Ibid, vii, 83ff. *Cārudatta*, p. 32.

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³ *Kāmasūtra*, p. 32 (*sūtra* 16); p. 259 (*sūtra* 12).

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⁴ Ibid, p. 337 (*sūtra* 7); p. 228 (*sūtra* 27).

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Besides the jeweller, the goldsmith and the diamond-cutter, the dyer of clothes (*rañjaka*) also was an artisan who appears to have access to the inner apartments of the *nāgaraka*'s house and to take orders from the ladies direct. Blue and orange (colour of the *kusumbha* flower) seem to be the dyes most fashionable; the dyer is by preference called the *nīlikusumbharañjaka*. The yellow dye was also perhaps generally used, though the dye obtained from turmeric (*haridrā*) provides a proverbial expression for denoting fickle, impermanent affection.⁵ Sundarī, Nanda's beloved wife, is described as weaving a garment of the colour of the ruby (*padmarāga*) which is no doubt the same as the *kusumbha* colour of Vātsyāyana, and in the *Buddhacarita* a lady is represented as wearing a blue dress.¹ Earlier still, these very same dyes appear to have been in favour. The noble Licchavi youths who went out of Vesālī to pay their respects to the great Buddha are described in the *Mahāvagga* as wearing blue, red and yellow robes besides white ones; the same work enumerates a number of other colours being used by people living in the enjoyments of the world, though even there the blue, yellow and red are given the first place.² The economic housewife is described by Vātsyāyana as getting the rejected clothes of her husband cleaned and redyed and then presenting them to the servants.³

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⁵ नीलीकुसुम्भरञ्जकादिप, etc.—Ibid, p. 259 (*sūtra* 12), हरिद्रागौ वा।—Ibid, p. 330 (*sūtra* 17).

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¹ पद्मरागं वसनं वसाना ।—*Saundarananda Kāvya*, vi, 26 ; नीलांगना—*Buddhacarita*, iv, 33 ; नीलवस्त्रवासिनी—Ibid, xii, 107.

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² *Mahāvagga*, vi, 30, 3 and viii, 29.

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³ *Kāmasūtra*, p. 230 (*sūtra* 34).

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A number of artisans are mentioned by Vātsyāyana as helping the *nāgaraka* in the decoration of his person and thus in his quest of love, and are spoken of by Vātsyāyana as his friends: among them we find in the first place, the florist who looks after his flowerbeds, who makes garlands for his neck and chaplets for his head, and who helps him in preparing floral decorations for presentation to his beloved.⁴ Next comes the perfumer (*saugandhika*) whom, as we have seen, he patronised very liberally. Then we have the goldsmith, the betel-leaf-seller, as also the washerman, the barber and the wine-seller. The women folk of these artisans were also regarded by him as his friends (*mitrāṇi*).⁵ This establishment of friendly relations between the wealthy *nāgaraka* and the craftsman appears to indicate a great respect for the crafts which are nowhere in Vātsyāyana spoken of as implying any inferior rank or position.

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⁴ पुष्पास्तरणम्, माल्यग्रथनविकल्पाः, शेखरकापीडयोजनम्, कर्णपतभङ्गाः etc.—Ibid, p. 32.

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⁵ See p. 69 (*sūtras* 37 and 38) ; p. 300 (*sūtra* 9).

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