The World of Courtesans c5.6

c5.6

Apart from the employment of courtesans by kings, their chief patrons seem to have been rich merchants and bankers who had amassed wealth and could afford the luxury of accomplished courtesans. The harem (*antahpura*, *orodha*) or inner apartment of the palace was a well-built structure, painted and plastered inside and provided with all kinds of luxuries. It is said to have employed the conventional number of sixteen thousand dancing girls (*natakitthiyo*) These courtesans were always at the disposal of the king forming an integral part of the seraglio, and they were often handed down from father to son. They attended and accompanied them to the royal garden. It is related in the *Khantivadi Jataka* that once king Kalabu was drunk and he came into the park in great pomp surrounded by a group of dancing girls. There he had a couch spread on the royal seat of stone and lay with his head on the lap of his favourite; the other dancing girls, skilled in vocal and instrumental music and in dancing gave a musical performance.