[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The World of Courtesans](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973) › c6.4 # The World of Courtesans c6.4 The World of Courtesans c6.4 - **Language:** English ### [c6.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973.c6.4) The \*Jnatadharma Katha\* I lists the attainments of a highly accomplished courtesan of Champa. Her body was faultless (\*ahina\*), imbued with auspicious signs (\*lakshana\*), and marked with black painted \*tilakas\*. She had the right height, girth and weight. She was proficient in the seventy-two traditional arts, and was endowed with the sixty-four qualities necessary for a courtesan. Here "sixty-four" might mean the sixty-four arts such as music, dancing etc., or sixty-four kinds of sexual and erotic poses and embraces. She had also an expert knowledge of the twenty-nine special qualities, the thirty-one kinds of \*ratigunas\* (sexual poses) and the thirty-two ways of treating men (\*purushopachara\*). She aroused slumbering passions by her youthful beauty. She was also a linguist, conversant with eighteen regional languages. She was fond of music and an expert dancer. She was graceful, witty and sweet in her conversation and a strict observer of etiquette. Her lovely breasts, her body, hands and legs were all seductive. Her fees were a thousand a day. The king granted her the special privilege of using the umbrella (\*chhatra\*), \*chauri\* and fan, and she always travelled in a covered wagon (\*karniratha\*) She commanded and patronized a thousand courtesans. According to the \*Sutrakritanga churni\* courtesans were well-versed in \*Vaisika\* (a section of the science of erotics) which is exclusively devoted to the problems of courtesans The commentary mentions that when Dattaka was cheated by a courtesan, he refused to make love to another courtesan in spite of all the blandishments sanctioned by the science of erotics. - [Previous: c6.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973.c6.3) - [Next: c6.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973.c6.5) - [Up: c6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973.c6) ## Linked texts (1) - [Nāyādhammakahāo](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.sveta.anga.6) — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973.c6.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.chandra-1973.c6.4) · Pramāṇa