The World of Courtesans c5.12

c5.12

A curious story of the cupidity of courtesans is related in the *Mahavastu* iii. 35-38. The chief courtesan (*agraganika*) of a city used to invite a clever, handsome person to sleep with her. She did this after oiling his body, applying perfumed powder and unguents to it and draping it with fine garments made in Kasi. Once a banker's son was seen quarreling with her He had offered her a hundred thousand pieces for spending a night with her, but she had refused the offer on the plea that she had already received her fees from somebody else. The poor lover told her the next day that he had passed the night dreaming that they were united in love. She at once demanded her fees (*bhatakam*) from him. The poor man was thunderstruck and refused to pay but she stuck to her demand. Other people tried to intervene and stop the quarrel but it was of no avail. Thereupon the members of the negama of Kampilla asked one Prajnavanta to adjudge the claim of the contestants The resourceful man ordered a mirror and a hundred thousand pieces to be brought into the room. He asked the banker's son to hold the basket with the money against the mirror and he told the courtesan to receive the reflection.