The World of Courtesans c4.17

c4.17

The Vedic *sabha* usually connotes an assembly as well as the hall where it met, and though there seem to have been several types of *sabha*, it is possible that the same *sabha* served multiple functions. It is also reasonable to suppose that with the increasing complexity of functions, the *sabha* divided itself into several correlated institutions also called *sabhas*. For instance, gambling from the very beginning was closely associated with the *sabha*. This might perhaps have meant the growth of a spacious gambling hall and it would have left other members free to perform more serious duties. In some passages in the later *Samhitas*, the *sabha* evidently refers to a sort of drawing room of a private house. One might read in *sabhavati yosha* of the *Rig Veda*, a reference in this particular context to women visiting a *sabha* hall. If this interpretation is correct. *sabhavati yosha* may have meant a courtesan. Bearing in mind the pejorative sense of the word *sabha* as a place where gamblers gathered, the presence of courtesans there is probable for in later times gambling, drinking and prostitution went hand in hand.