The World of Courtesans c8.187

c8.187

All courtesans could not attract youthful clients. Courtesans themselves had to be endowed with beauty and sweet speech. They had to learn to appraise the beauty of a client and had themselves to be versed in the arts and varieties of love-making. They had to learn to be successful participants in *goshthi*. Physical defects, such as suffering from a wasting disease, were considered shortcomings in a lover. A lover who was attached to his own wife, cruel, sly and miserly in his conduct, or a lover who was a thief and fond of seducing others etc., was regarded with suspicion by courtesans.