Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s8.9

c8.s8.9

The *gaṇikā* literally appears to mean a woman who is the member of a *gaṇa* or corporation, whose charms are the common poetry of the whole body of men associated together by a common bond, economic or political. Manu associates the *gaṇa* and the *gaṇikā* in one verse saying that the food offered by both were equally to be refused by a Brahmin.¹ The *gaṇa* might be a corporation of citizens, the *nāgarika-jana-samavāya* of Vātsyāyana like the one to which our *nāgaraka* belonged, or it might be a political body like that of the Licchavis of Vaiśālī whose *gaṇikā*, Ambapālikā, was a glory of their capital and was credited with all the virtues and qualities contemplated by Vātsyāyana and Bharata, thus testifying that their definitions were not fanciful and imaginary. We read in the *Mahāvagga* that she was charming, attractive, graceful, possessed of a fine and tender complexion, generous, and proficient in dancing, song, and music. The wealth and power that the *gaṇikā* of Vaiśālī possessed and the position that she occupied, were in no way inferior to those of the best of the proud Licchavis; her train was as numerous and as sumptuously decorated, her carriages were as magnificent as those of the Licchavis against whom she drove up axle to axle, wheel to wheel, and yoke to yoke. Her presence made the city of Vaiśālī shine forth in great splendour and glory. She constituted, as it were, a valued institution of the city, the high model of beauty and art thus set up by the *gaṇikā* of Vesālī roused a merchant of the rival city of Rājagaha to induce king Bimbisāra to have this institution of *gaṇikā* in his own capital which suffered in this respect in comparison with the chief city of the *gaṇarājya* or republic of the Licchavis.² It shows that in those early times *gaṇikās* were not so numerous as they became in Vātsyāyana's days. But we observe that in the days of Kātyāyana, the author of the *Vārttika-sūtras* of the grammatical school of Pāṇini, there were already guilds of *gaṇikās* (*gaṇikyam*), as explained in the *Mahābhāṣya*, just as we read of the *gaṇikā-saṅgha* in *Vātsyāyana*.¹