Kamashastra Discourse (Life in Ancient India)
by Nidheesh Kannan B. | 2018 | 52,434 words
This page relates ‘Positioning Kamashastra in the Festive Scenario of Early Urban India� of the study on Kamashastra representing the discipline of Kama (i.e., ‘sensual pleasure�). The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana from the 4th century is one of the most authoratitive Sanskrit texts belonging this genre. This study focusses on the vision of life of ancient India reflected in Kamashastra.
7. Positioning °Äå³¾²¹Å›Äå²õ³Ù°ù²¹ in the Festive Scenario of Early Urban India
The social situation which reflects in the °Äå³¾²¹Å›Äå²õ³Ù°ù²¹ and its cultural scenario point to an alternative material way of life in the society. Human life with its empirical experiences is depicted as the pivotal point in °Äå³¾²¹Å›Äå²õ³Ù°ù²¹. What type of material culture and social environment is depicted in the text of °Äå³¾²¹²õÅ«³Ù°ù²¹ is the curious question to be analyzed. Undoubtedly, in an urban society it is the surplus that is the cause for the development of cultural progress. Only the surplus in social production can nurture intelligentsia who spend their time in material and sexual pleasures. A rich urban society can provide for the promotion of cultural and artistic life.
â€�°Äå³¾²¹²õÅ«³Ù°ù²¹ was apparently the first in the world to treat scientifically of erotics, not only for the individual but as a social science as well. This is thus a complement to the monastic tradition that was sweeping the countryside as a civilizing influence. Naturally, it was meant for the new elite, the ²ÔÄå²µ²¹°ù²¹°ì²¹ or “man-about townâ€� whose existence implied some source of income, ample leisure, and the existence of many towns where this new class could develop its tastes. Their pastimes did imply taste for all cultured pursuits, among which refined sexual enjoyment took its place frank and unashamed. The treatment is materialistic throughout, but never gross. The ²õ²¹³¾ÄåÂá²¹ (1. 4. 27) had become a rather tame meeting in the temple of the goddess of learning. A new club-like association with the highly accomplished and cultured hetaerae had come into fashion, the ²µ´Çá¹£á¹³ó¾± (1. 4. 34); the word would later mean more general associations. There were numerous festival occasions for the enjoyment of group life, by this new class, independently of caste and religious occasions (1. 4. 82).
Some of these hark back to the semi-ritual civic nakkahatta-°ìÄ«±ô²¹ of the ´³Äå³Ù²¹°ì²¹²õ (118. 147) to be celebrated by every couple. The cultured citizen, on a visit to the village, was to display and describe the tasteful accomplishments of city life in a way that the more intelligent of the country-dwellers could appreciate not conversing wholly in Sanskrit nor wholly in the rural idiom. In all this, the proper choice of a bride is not neglected, while detailed intricacies of the sexual act have given the work a faithful reading public (and some interpolations) lost by the Arthaâ€� (Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi. 1975: 242-243).
The urban milieu enumerated in °Äå³¾²¹²õÅ«³Ù°ù²¹ cannot be there before third century BCE. But a material background for the formation of such literary productions can be traced in the time of Buddha. On various occasions, ³ÕÄå³Ù²õ²âÄå²â²¹²Ô²¹ has quoted several earlier exponents of °Äå³¾²¹Å›Äå²õ³Ù°ù²¹ in his work °Äå³¾²¹²õÅ«³Ù°ù²¹. He codifies the legitimate systems and concepts in the field. The analytical observations done by the predecessors in this subject have been codified by ³ÕÄå³Ù²õ²âÄå²â²¹²Ô²¹. He has furnished them after his own interpretation with a theoretical framework. In this way, it is to be understood that the social and cultural backdrop was conducive for the formation of the °Äå³¾²¹²õÅ«³Ù°ù²¹.