The Courtesan and the Birth of "Ars Erotica" in the "Kāmasūtra": A History of Erotics

in the Wake of Foucault

Author(s): SANJAY K. GAUTAM
Source: Journal of the History of Sexuality , JANUARY 2014, Vol. 23, No. 1 (JANUARY
2014), pp. 1-20
Published by: University of Texas Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24616647

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 The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica

in the Kamasutra: A History of Erotics

in the Wake of Foucault

SANJAY K. GAUTAM
University of Colorado at Boulder

This article investigates the role played by the courtesan in

determining the nature and origin of the Kamasiitra (Treatise on pleasure),
the Sanskrit text from ancient India, in critical engagement with Miche
Foucault's notion of ars erotica.1 In particular, this article focuses on the
courtesan as the historical anchor of a subtle—but critical—affinity between
erotics and the discourse and practice of theater evident in the Kamasiitra.
An understanding of this affinity is crucial for determining the nature of
pleasure and the precise mode of its pursuit in this foundational text on
erotics. What is at the heart of this affinity, this article contends, is the
question of identity as it relates to the discourse and practice of pleasure.
More generally, this article argues that it was the courtesan and the set of
practices that developed around her that constituted not only the historical
and cultural context of the Kamasiitra but also one of its most important
sources of ideas. The courtesan thus holds the key to both the nature and
historical origin of ars erotica as it took form in India.
The Kamasiitra, attributed to Vatsyayana, was composed in the third
century of the Common Era.2 After its translation into English for the first
time in 1883, the Kamasiitra emerged worldwide as an iconic text in the
field of erotics.3 Its impact in India, however, was felt far beyond its own

1 Devadatta Shastri, ed., Kamasutra of Vatsyayana, with the Commentary ofTashodhara

(Varanasi: Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, 1964); Damodar Lai Goswami, ed., Kamasutra
of Vatsyayana, with the Commentary of Yashodhara (Varanasi: Chaukhambha Sanskri
Sansthan, 1912). See also Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar, eds., Vatsyayana Kamasutra:
A New, Complete Translation of the Sanskrit Text (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Translations from the Kamasutra are my own.
2 According to Doniger and Kakar, the Kamasutra was most likely written in the second
half of the third century CE (Vatsyayana Kamasutra, lln2).
3 Richard Burton was the first to translate the Kamasutra into English in 1883. Richard
F. Burton, ed., The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana: The Classic Hindu Treatise on Love and Social
Conduct (New York: E. R Dutton, 1962). For a discussion of the ICamasutra's translations
Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 23, No. 1, January 2014
© 2014 by the University of Texas Press
DOI: 10.7560/JHS23101

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2 Sanjay K. Gautam

field of erotics on literature and culture in general.4 Given its

however, the Kamasutra has attracted surprisingly little scholarly
With rare exceptions, the Kamasutra continues to be out of
much of the academic world.3 Ivo Fiser, a historian of eroti
ogy," as he characterizes it—in premodern India felt comp
clude after a survey of existing scholarly literature on the Kam
"ancient Indian sexology is by far the most neglected discip
wide spectrum of Indological studies, however much lip-serv
paid to it in the past. It shows clearly that the 'Victorian mi
not a thing of the past."6
The contrast of ars erotica, or the erotic arts, and scientia sexu
science of sexuality, played a key role in Foucault's problematiz
history of sexuality in the West.7 Yet, in view of its critical sign
the formulation of his original project, Foucault's own comm
subject of ars erotica are all too brief. Given that Foucault's wor
history of sexuality have been decisive in setting the agenda fo
of sexual practices not only in the West but also for much of th
world, a historical exploration into the Kamasutra—the most
in the domain of ars erotica—acquires enormous significance
occasional comments and criticisms, there has been no seriou
explore the nature and origin of the discourse and practice of a
the Kamasutra in light of Foucault's observations on the sub
into European languages, particularly into English by Burton and its impa
and Kakar, Va tsy ay a n a Kdm asu tra, 50-60.
4 See Vishwanath K. Hampiholi, Kamasutra in Classical Sanskrit Lite
Ajanta, 1988).
b Apart from the introduction to her translation of the Kamasutra, Wendy Doniger has
also published a number of other articles in recent years on various topics in the Kamasutra.
See her "The Kamasutra: It Isn't All about Sex," Kenyon Review 25, no. 1 (2003): 18-37;
and her "On Translating the Kamasutra'. A Gurudaskhina for Daniel H. H. Ingalls," Journal
of Indian Philosophy 29, nos. 1-2 (2001): 81-94.
6 Ivo Fiser, "The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana: A Bibliographical Study," in Lex et Litterae:
Studies in Honour of Professor Oscar Botto, ed. Siegfried Lienhard and Irma Piovano (Turin:
Edizioni dell'Orso, 1997), 208-9. In recent years, the Kamasutra seems to have attracted
a few more scholars. A number of these efforts seem to have been provoked by a reading of
Foucault. See the special issue "Rethinking the History of the Kama World in Early India,"
Journal of Indian Philosophy 39, no. 1 (2011). See especially Daud Ali's introductory essay,
"Rethinking the History of the Kama World," 1-13, for an expanded notion of kdma that
extends to the domains of aesthetics, ethics, and cosmopolitan culture. This introduction
also contains a brief historiographical review of the secondary literature on the Kamasutra
and also on the history of kama in general in Indian culture.
7 Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, vol. 1, An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley
(New York: Vintage, 1990).
s It is interesting that Foucault himself never referred directly to the Kamasutra when
discussing his notion of ars erotica, though he listed India as one of the non-Western cultures
that developed ars erotica. He did, however, refer to China in this regard. After evaluating
van Gulik's work on sexual practices in ancient China in light of Foucault's thoughts on ars
erotica, Richard Schusterman concludes: "Since discussion of the aesthetic aspect of these

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 The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica 3

While broadly delineating the field of the history of sexuality, Foucault

noted that, "historically, there have been two great procedures for produc
ing the truth of sex": ars erotica and scientia sexualis. While ars erotica
flourished in a number of non-Western cultures that included India, the
West alone developed scientia sexualis.9 One of the ways in which Foucault
distinguishes ars erotica from scientia sexualis is in terms of the contrasting
relationship between identity or self and pleasure in the two discourses.
While in scientia sexualis pleasure is subordinated to the notion of identity,
in ars erotica it was the notion of identity that was subordinated to pleasure:
"If identity is only a game, if it is only a procedure to have relations, social
and sexual—pleasure relationships that create new friendships, it is useful.
... The relationships we have to have with ourselves are not ones of identity,
rather, they must be relationships of differentiation, of creation, of innova
tion. . . . We must not exclude identity if people find their pleasure through
this identity, but we must not think of this identity as an ethical universal
rule."10 As we can see in this comment, Foucault takes pleasure out of the
jurisdiction of the notion of self and identity and sets it free. Identity is
nothing more than a game; it is not something always already there to be
discovered but something to be invented and constructed in the pursuit
of pleasure. It was as if, for Foucault, erotics as a discourse anchored in
pleasure constituted a space akin to theater.
It is in light of Foucault's problematization of the precise relationship
between pleasure and identity that I want to situate one of the curious
features of the Kamasutra, a feature that goes to the heart of the nature
of erotics developed in the Kamasutra: its use of the words nayaka (actor)
and nayika (actress) to describe the partners in an erotic affair. In the choice
of these terms, the Kamasutra, it seems, subtly reveals its understand
ing of the nature of erotics it sought to construct. It appears that for the
Kamasutra, just as for Foucault, one could enter the domain of erotics only
under an invented identity. What is also interesting is that the Kamasutra
never quite problematizes its choice of these terms, this sudden irruption
of the language of theater in a discourse of erotics. I argue in this article
that the Kamasutra did not feel the need to problematize and explain its

elements is rather limited and is overwhelmingly overshadowed by the emphasis on health

issues, the case for the aesthetic character of the erotic arts can be much better made by mov
ing from Chinese to Indian sexual theory" ("Asian Ars Erotica and the Question of Sexual
Aesthetics," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65, no. 1 [2007]: 61, referring to R. H.
van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey of Chinese Sex and Society ca.
1500B.C. till 1644A.D. [Leiden: Brill, 2003]).
9 Given that Foucault situates the dramatically different approaches to sex in terms of
the difference between East and West, it has predictably given rise to some uneasiness. Jyoti
Puri, for example, finds "orientalist legacies embedded in Foucault's history of sexuality
in Western "Europe" ("Concerning 'KamasutrasChallenging Narratives of History and
Sexuality," Signs 27, no. 3 [2002]: 632).
10 Michel Foucault, Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (New York: New Press, 1997), 166.

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4 Sanjay K. Gautam

choice of terms because it found them to be self-evident in the

the courtesan. In other words, it was in and through the fi
courtesan that the discourse and practice of erotics came to res
of theater. Insofar as the issues of pleasure and identity or the
complex web in the courtesan's life as she went about her d
it was in her that the discourse and practice, thought and h
erotica encountered each other. As a historical exploration into
and origin of ars erotica, this article must, therefore, follow th
of the courtesan in the Kamasutra.

The Courtesan as the King in the Domain of Ars Erotica

As a treatise the Kamasutra is divided into seven books of uneven lengt

dedicated to different topics. The seven books are further subdivided i
chapters, which contain the individual sutras (aphoristic formulations)
the topics under discussion. Book 1 deals with the place of kama (pleasu
love) in a life of multiple—and often competing and conflicting—dema
It also constructs the everyday profile of the nagaraka, the man-about-t
members of the male elite of the city to whom the Kamasutra was pri
ily addressed. Book 2 describes different kinds of sexual practices.
3 is about ways to court a girl for marriage. Book 4 focuses on the
and provides her with strategies to win and retain the love of her hus
Book 5 elaborates on ways to win the love of another man's wife. B
is about courtesans and how best they can manage their lives of inh
complexity and risks. Book 7, the last, provides instructions on eso
sexual methods and devices.
The word kama means "pleasure," "erotic love," and also "desire."11 In
the Kamasutra, it carries the specific meaning of sexual or erotic pleasure
and love in their unity.12 The text of the Kamasutra establishes kama as a
separate and relatively autonomous domain of discourse and practice in the
first three chapters of the very first book.1'' In ancient Indian tradition, kama
was recognized as one of the four purusarthas (ultimate human goals) along
with dharma (law, duty, and morality), artha (meaning here power and
wealth), and moksa (spiritual liberation). The word purusdrtha is made up
of two words, purusa (human being) and artha (meaning here end, goal,
or purpose). The domain of dharma includes the discourse and practice of
law, duty, and morality. Artha as power covers the entire domain of politics
and state. The last but also the highest human goal is that of moksa, which

11 For a brief survey of the concept of kama in Indian intellectual tradition, see Joanna
Macy, "The Dialectics of Desire," Jslumen 22, no. 2 (1975): 145-60.
12 In a very perceptive observation, Wendy Doniger notes that "Sanskrit intermingles
concepts of passion, love, and pleasure, which English tends to hold separate" (Doniger and
Kakar, Vatsyayana Kamasutra, 64).
13 Shastri, Kamasutra, 1:1—3.

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 The Courtesan and the Birth o/Ars Erotica 5

requires complete renunciation of the world.14 The centrality of the notion

of purusartha to the Kdmasutra can be gauged from the fact that the text
opens with a salutation to dharma, artha, and kama as if they were three
deities and then goes on to situate the pursuit of kama in relation to the
other human ends.10
Since the word artha also means "meaning," the purusartha system
seems to suggest that human existence becomes meaningful only in
light of its pursuit of these four ultimate ends. In other words, what is at
stake in the purusartha system is the very intelligibility of human existence
in the broadest and most comprehensive way.16 It is not surprising, there
fore, that much of Indian intellectual tradition is organized along these
four ends of man. In time the purusartha system gave rise to four distinct
domains of knowledge or discursive formations known as dharmasastra
(discourse of dharma, or law and moral duty), arthasastra (discourse of
politics), kdmasdstra (discourse of pleasure), and moksasdstra (discourse
of spiritual liberation).
The Kdmasutra as the text that launched the discourse of kama was
written after the other three discursive formations had already found their
most decisive and enduring articulations. The Kdmasutra follows a general
sense of hierarchy among the human ends that put dharma, artha, and kama
in descending order; none of the four domains, however, had complete
legislative primacy over the others. What was implied was that each end,
while claiming its own autonomy, would leave the others as much room for
autonomy as possible in their own domains. Each end carried some degree of
autonomy, though that is not to say that there was no attempt to encroach on
another domain. The question of relative autonomy of the four domains was
less a matter of principle and more one of constant intellectual maneuvering.
The very composition of the Kdmasutra was one such instance of intel
lectual maneuvering meant to give the domain of erotic pleasure-love some
autonomy in the face of the increasingly influential, socially conservative
vision of the Mdnava Dharmasastra (Manu's Code of Law), which was
anchored in caste and patriarchal identity—Brahmin, Ksatrlya, Vaisya, and

14 This last goal of spiritual liberation, with some differences, is common to all Indian
religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
15 Shastri, Kdmasutra, 1:1:1. Insofar as moksa as the last of the four purusarthas is radically
different from the first three, the Kamasutra often mentions only dharma, artha, and kama
together as trivarga, or set of three, while also acknowledging the fourth in other places.
1 Sheldon Pollock thinks of the purusartha as "one of the primary jjeschichtliche
Grundbegriffeor "historical core concepts," in the "ideal-typical template of Indian
culture" that took on the "character of common sense" {The Ends of Man at the End of
Premodemity [Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005], 10).
According to Arvind Sharma, who sees the purusarthas as the "fundamental building blocks
of Hindu axiology," "it is a sobering thought that all Hindu cultural enterprises—social,
political, spiritual, and any other—have always vindicated themselves in light of this doctrine
which provided them with an axiological basis and justification" (The Purusartha: A Study in
Hindu Axiology [East Lansing: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1982], 40).

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6 Sanjay K. Gautam

Sudra—composed sometime between the first century BCE and the f

CE.17 The MUncivil Dharmasastra, a central text of the discours
and one of the most important texts in Indian culture as a who
bring kama under the legislative sovereignty of dharma so as to
identity and secure its purity and authenticity. It was thus that the
dharma came to focus on the institution of the family and laid th
for patriarchy. Yet if caste and family identity were to become the basi
a law of identity had to be imposed on sexual practices. Complete
sexual practices, after all, would have threatened these identities.
practices came to be subordinated to the sovereign discourse of d
Under such historical and discursive circumstances, the
while claiming relative autonomy for pleasure as a distinc
erotics, inevitably confronted an important question: Given
subordination of pleasure to dharma and artha, was there
or instance in which pleasure alone stood supreme in its aut
instance in which it expressed itself fully and revealed its natu
constraints? In response to this implied question, the Kama
that despite the general primacy of dharma, kama acquires
tonomy in the figure of the courtesan just as artha finds sovere
figure of the king.18 No sooner had the Kamasutra laid out
position of the three purusarthas than it pointed at exceptio
rality lost its general primacy to power and pleasure in the two
figures and institutions of the king and the courtesan, respecti

17 Probably more than any other text in Indian history, the Manava
has determined the Western understanding of Indian society. See Patrick
Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Manava Dharmas'ds
Oxford University Press, 2005); see also Olivelle, ed., Dharma: Studies in
tural and Religious History (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2009). Though
overtly seems to comply with the Dharmas'dstra's vision of a society based on
(see, for example, Shastri, Kdmasutra, 1:2:25), covertly much of what it
runs counter to the ethos and principles of dharma. While interpreting t
apparent compliance with the discourse of dharma, one needs to keep in min
strategic in nature. After all, as I argue, the Kdmasutra pitches its figure o
against the Dharmasdstra figure of the wife.
18 Shastri, Kdmasutra, 1:2:14-15. With the exception of Burton and Up
translators and commentators of the Kdmasutra have translated this passage t
the courtesan, as for the king, artha has primacy. This reading involves a mi
although the aphoristic brevity of the Kdmasutra and an obvious aspect of
existence seem to leave some ambiguity, the train of thought leading up to t
no doubt about the meaning. It should be noted that the second chapter of
is called "Trivarga-Pratipatti-Prakarnam" and focuses on the set of three pu
order in which the Kdmasutra discusses them is dharma, artha, and kama. T
the same order in the opening salutation of the Kdmasutra. This is the order
has in view when it lays down the general rule about the relative value of t
compared: the first has primacy over the second, the second over the third.
points out exceptions to this general rule. The king as an exception belongs
of artha, while the courtesan belongs to the domain of kama. See S. C. U
Kdmasutra: The Hindu Art of Love (London: Watkins, 2004), 71; Burton,
ofVdtsydyana, 64.

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 The Courtesan and the Birth ofArs Erotica 7

What the Kamasutra was arguing in effect was that the courtesan was
in the domain of erotics what the king was in the domain of politics: an
exceptional and sovereign figure.19 The fact that pleasure as an end found
its autonomy in the figure of the courtesan also suggests that pleasure as
a discourse and practice found its fullest expression in her. The courtesan
is thus at the very origin of the Kamasutra as the model and measure in
the domain of erotics. Without the courtesan an authoritative discourse of
pleasure would not have been possible. The question about the nature of
ars erotica as articulated in the Kamasutra, therefore, is neither abstract
nor theoretical but anchored in the historical figure of the courtesan.
Historically, the Kamasutra is best seen not as the creation of a single
author but rather as a culmination of a long evolution centered on the figure
of the courtesan. Even a casual reading of the Kamasutra brings home the
fact that it was written by someone who had observed the goings-on in the
part of the city reserved for courtesans for a considerable period of time.
The minute and subtle details and generalizations about different kinds
of men and women, their physical features, and their cultural and sexual
habits would have been impossible without the opportunity to observe for
a prolonged period a diverse group of men and women engaged in amo
rous acts. The text must be seen in this light as the culmination of a long
historical process of accumulating, editing, compiling, and theorizing.
It is significant that in addition to numerous references to vesyas (cour
tesans) throughout the text, book 6 of the Kamasutra, called Vaisika (Of
courtesans), is devoted exclusively to their lives. This book describes in great
detail the activities of the courtesans, their role and place in society. It is
important to note that this book is addressed to courtesans and had been
written with their interests in mind. Not surprisingly, therefore, it instructs
them about how best to manage a life of inherent difficulty and complex
ity. Written from the perspective of the courtesan and not her patrons, it
teaches courtesans ways to seduce new patrons and discard old ones.20 This
is remarkable for a text that is otherwise primarily directed to men.
Even though stray references to what could only be termed the earliest
prototypes of the figure of the courtesan are found in the Vedic period
(1500-900 BCE), the profession started to come into its own as a social
institution beginning in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE.21 This period

19 According to Ludwik Sternbach, in classical Sanskrit courtesans were compared to

kings more often than to any other social or political figure. The reason, it seems from the
citations collected by Sternbach, was the popular perception of their shared duplicity: the
king was interested in power alone even as he made public professions of his people's wel
fare, while the courtesan was interested in nothing but money even as she put on a show of
love to her patron. See Ludwik Sternbach, Ganika-v rtta-samgrahah: Or Texts on Courtesans
in Classical Sanskrit (Hoshiarpur: Visheshvarananda Vedic Research Institute, 1953), 143.
20 Shastri, Kamasiitra, 6:3.
21 On courtesans in ancient India, see Sternbach, Ganika-v rtta-sam£frabah\ Ludwik
Sternbach, "Legal Position of Prostitutes According to Kautilya's ArthasastraJournal of
the American Oriental Society 71, no. 1 (1951): 25-60; Sukumari Bhattacharji, "Prostitution
in Ancient India," Social Scientist 15, no. 2 (1987): 32-61; Monika Saxena, "'Ganikas in

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8 Sanjay K. Gautam

was marked by the beginning of a phase of rapid urbanization in

and western India as reflected in the growth of long-distanc
works, the emergence of large and prosperous cities, and the adv
economy based on money.22 Courtesans were a historical by-
these factors and the breakdown of tribal society.23 Even as the
was used to cover all categories of courtesans, the title ganika wa
reserved for the highest-ranked courtesans in ancient India.24 G
known for their artistic achievements in fields such as dance, m
theater. They were perhaps as responsible for the development a
of the arts in ancient India as any other historical figure.20 Every
had a chief courtesan known as the nagarasobPiini (ornament of
In the Buddhist sources going back to the fifth century BCE
to courtesans suddenly become more frequent and vivid, sugg
they had become a familiar feature of everyday life in the citie
famous courtesans were well-known donors to Buddhist monaste
Buddha is said to have ordained Amrapali, a celebrated ganik
Buddhist order.28 In these sources, courtesans also find mention
other charitable public works, such as building bridges, temples,
Even though the denunciations of courtesans in the Manava
Dharmasastra may give the impression that prostitution was outlawed in
ancient India and courtesans were reviled figures, prostitution remained
legal throughout ancient and early medieval India. It is significant that an
entire chapter in the Artlmsdstra, a treatise on state and politics dating back

Early India," Social Scientist 34, no. 11/12 (2006): 2-17; Shonaleeka Kaul, "Women about
Town: An Exploration of the Sanskrit Kavya Tradition," Studies in History 22, no. 1 (2006):
59-76; S. N. Sinha, N. K. Basu, and Rita Sil, History of Marriage and Prostitution: Vedas
to Vdtsyayana (New Delhi: Khama, 1992); Moti Chandra, The World of Courtesans (Delhi:
Vikas, 1973); Santosh Kumar Mukherji, Prostitution in India (New Delhi: Inter India, 1986).
For a very insightful analysis of courtesans in modern India, see Veena Talwar Oldenburg,
"Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow, India," Feminist Studies
16, no. 2 (1990): 259-87.
22 G. P. Singh, Republics, Kingdoms, Towns and Cities in Ancient India (New Delhi: D. K.
Printworld, 2003), 212-13; see also Patrick Olivelle, ed., Between the Empires: Society in India,
300 BCE to 400 CE (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 5-166; Vijay Kumar Thakur,
Urbanization in Ancient India (New Delhi: Abhinav, 2003); and R. Champakalakshmi,
Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India, 300 BC to 1300 AD (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1998).
23 Bhattacharji, "Prostitution in Ancient India," 33; see also Shonaleeka Kaul, Imagining
the Urban: Sanskrit and the City in Early India (New York: Seagull, 2011).
24 Based on his survey of the ancient and early medieval Indian sources in Sanskrit,
Sternbach concluded that "the word gariikd always denotes the highest degree of prosti
tutes—a courtesan" (Ganika-v rtta-samgrahah, 26).
!>A. S. Altekar refers to them as the "custodians of fine arts" (The Position of Women in
Hindu Civilization [New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidas, 1938], 181-82).
26 Bhattacharji, "Prostitution in Ancient India," 43.
27 Ibid., 43-44.
28 Santosh Kumar Mukherji, Prostitution in India (New Delhi: Inter India, 1986), 65-66.
29 Battacharji, "Prostitution in Ancient India," 56.

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 The Courtesan and the Birth o/Ars Erotica 9

to the third century BCE, is devoted to the office of the jjanikd-adhyaks a,

the government superintendent of courtesans responsible for the part of
the city reserved for the courtesans.'10 In describing in great detail the duties
of this official, the Arthasdstra has left one of the most detailed pictures
of the state of courtesans and their profession in ancient India.31 Indeed,
according to the Arthasdstra, the state was advised to control, supervise,
manage, and, indeed, profit from the business of courtesans.32 What be
comes amply evident is that by the time of the Arthasdstra, the profession
of courtesans had acquired a great deal of complexity in terms of both the
kinds of courtesans (categorized, and often ranked, according to their skill
and training) and the nature of their activity. The variety in the profession
is also reflected in the fact that, by Ludwik Sternbach's estimate, there are
over 250 synonyms for the word "prostitute" in the Sanskrit lexicon.53
A celebrated ganika, the highest-ranking courtesan, effortlessly straddled
the worlds of both the fine arts and erotics, which became in her life parts
of a single continuum. The courtesan was at the heart of the Kdmasutra''s
vision of ars erotica: "A courtesan who is well versed [in the arts mentioned
above] and is also endowed with a good nature, beauty, and other qualities
earns the title of ganika and finds a place in public forums. She is always
honored by the king and admired by good men; approached and solicited
[by all], she also becomes a role model."34 As is clear from this passage, the
vesya had to "earn the title of ganika" through long and hard work in a set of
sixty-four arts and crafts that included dance, music, theater, and painting.35
What is also significant is that such a woman was "honored" by no less a
person than the king and "admired" by the learned, the elites of society. As
the Kdmasutra states, the courtesan not only was "solicited" by all but also
became a "role model," a term that ought not to be interpreted solely, or
even primarily, in terms of the courtesan's sexual accomplishments."6 Rather,

30 R. P. Kangle, ed., Kautilya: Arthasastra (Bombay: University of Bombay, 1965).

31 For a comprehensive study of the legal status of prostitutes and the state of prostitution
in the Arthasastra, see Sternbach, "Legal Position of Prostitutes," 25-60.
32 It should be noted, however, that the Arthasastra is the only text from ancient India
to use the wordganika exclusively to describe those courtesans who were also state servants.
See Sternbach, "Legal Position of Prostitutes," 35. Given that the Arthasastra was a formal
treatise on statecraft, it is possible that these references were part of Kautilya's vision of what
a state ought to do with the ganikas in its territory, not a description of what they really did.
Even so, there is no doubt that the Arthasastra assumed the ganikas to be the most accom
plished and the very best kind of courtesan.
33 Sternbach, "Legal Position of Prostitutes," 25.
,4 Shastri, Kamasutra, 1:3:17-18.
33 According to the Arthasastra, it was the duty of the state, which employed ganikas, to
offer them education in these sixty-four arts. See Sternbach, "Legal Position of Prostitutes," 35.
°6 My translation differs from that of Doniger and Kakar (Vatsyayana Kamasutra, 16),
who translate the very last part of the verse cited here as "and she is a standard for other
courtesans to strive for." The context in which these verses appear puts the ganika within a
larger social context that includes not only the leading people of society but also the king.
Also, here the ganika is being characterized not in terms of her skills in sex but in terms of

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10 Sanjay K. Gautam

she was given the status of a role model because it was in her tha
itself was transformed into a form of art. There was, it seems, m
grudging admiration for the courtesan: with her artistic accompl
and her status as a cultural icon, she came to be seen as the symb
glamour and the grandeur of the kingdom fortunate enough to h
It was not surprising, therefore, that kingdoms with famous
aroused envy in their rivals.37

The Courtesan as an Actress of Love

It is significant that the Kamasutra does not directly problematize its ch

of the figure of the courtesan as exemplary and exceptional in the dom
of erotics; it simply assumes the choice to be self-evident and requirin
further justification. Still, the only way to get to the basic nature of er
and its historical origin in the Kamasutra is to problematize this choic
asking those questions that the Kamasutra did not feel the need t
What was it about the courtesan and the nature and mode of her existence
that made her an exceptional and exemplary figure in the domain of erotics?
Conversely, what was it about the nature of erotics in the Kamasutra that
found in the courtesan its most complete expression? What was it about
erotics, moreover, that joined it to the arts in the figure of the courtesan?
A clue to the deeper conceptual links between the nature of erotics at
stake in the Kamasutra and the figure of the courtesan can be found in
a set of crucial terms of great significance that slipped unquestioned into
the text. The Kamasutra uses the twin technical terms ndyaka (actor) and
nayika (actress), rather than simply "man" and "woman," to designate the
male and the female partners in a sexual act or an amorous relationship.38
The words belong, of course, to the language of theater, and they sug
gest something significant about the text's approach to the entire domain

her accomplishments in what would fall in the category of fine arts. Although sexual arts are
mentioned immediately before these verses, any elaboration is deferred, because sexual arts
did not belong in this chapter focused on the fine arts, which are of course part of the erotic
arts at a much broader level. It was because of her artistic accomplishments that the ganika
was respected by the king and adored by even the good men of society. The words abhigamya
(approached) and prarthaniya (solicited) also need to be seen in light of this context: a
courtesan is approached and solicited for the sake of her artistic accomplishments. It was as
the most accomplished figure in the arts that she became a laksyabbnta (role model) for the
people at large and not merely for other courtesans.
37 This was despite the fact that courtesans, including the ganikas, were denounced in the
strongest terms by much of the didactic and dharma literature of ancient and early medieval
India. After a wide-ranging survey of classical Sanskrit, Sternbach concludes that "courtesans
[were] considered as the most condemnable creatures" ("Legal Position of Prostitutes,"
151). Bhattacharji also notes this dual attitude toward courtesans in ancient India ("Prostitu
tion in Ancient India," 53, 55-56).
38 Shastri, Kamasutra, 1:5:3.

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 The Courtesan and the Birth o/Ars Erotica 11

of pleasure.39 It was as if for the Kamasiitra, erotics belonged to a realm

akin to theater, as if the space opened up by the discourse of erotics was
more like a stage. The crucial question that arises is, What was it about
erotics as a domain of discourse and practice that required this shift from
the space of everyday life to that of theater? What distinguishes an actor
from a common man or woman is that an actor plays a character that he
is not. In other words, the actor assumes an identity that is nothing more
than a mask. No matter how absorbed an actor is in the role he is playing,
he retains a distance toward or difference from the character he is playing.
The KamasutrcCs assumed analogy with theater suggests that one does not
extend one's everyday identity or self into the space of erotics; one has to
invent or construct an identity, a role for oneself. Erotics, it would appear,
was the invention of a new mode of being—being as acting or playing.
It was only as another that one could inhabit the space of erotics. Where
does this necessity of losing one's identity come from? Is there something
incompatible between identity and the erotic experience? The answer that
the Kamasiitra assumes without directly formulating it is that the pursuit
of pleasure-love carries one beyond the circle of identity.
Now, since the courtesan was the exceptional figure that embodied ars
erotica in the fullest sense, it is not surprising that she was also the historical
source for the terminology of actor and actress. The Kamasiitra lists four
possible types of nayikas: the kanya (unmarried girl), the punarbhu (remar
ried woman), the paksiki (another man's wife), and the vesya.40 On the face
of it, it seems that the courtesan is only one of the four types of actresses,
but a close look reveals that she is assumed to be the most representative
of the four. Indeed, studied closely, this list of potential actresses is marked
as much by the figure that it excludes as by the ones it includes. One figure
that is conspicuous by its absence in this list is the wife. The unmarried girl
could be a potential wife but is not one yet. The other man's wife as a type

3Q To my knowledge Doniger is the only scholar to have noted and attached significance
to this theatrical aspect of the Kamasutra. According to her introduction to her translation,
"Beneath the veneer of a sexual textbook, the Kamasutra resembles a work of dramatic fic
tion, more than anything else. The man and woman whose sex lives are described here are
called the nayaka and nayika (male and female protagonists), and the men who assist the
nayaka are called pithamarda, vita, and vidusaka (the libertine, pander, and clown). All
of these are terms for stock characters in Sanskrit dramas—the hero and heroine, sidekick,
supporting player, and jester—according to yet another textbook, the one attributed to
Bharata and dealing with dramatic writing, acting, and dancing, the Natyas'dstra. The very
last line of the Kamasutra speaks of a man playing the part of lover, as if on the stage. Is the
Kamasutra a play about sex? Certainly it has a dramatic sequence, and, like most classical
Indian dramas, it has seven acts" (Doniger and Kakar, Vdtsyayana Kamasutra, 25-28). My
focus, in contrast to that of Doniger, is not so much on the resemblance of the Kamasutra
to a play as on the question of the nature of erotics itself as a pursuit of pleasure that deploys
the language of theater. Also, I draw attention to the historical figure of the courtesan upon
which the Kamasutra drew.
40 Shastri, Kamasutra, 1:5:3.

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12 Sanjay K. Gautam

of potential erotic actress refers only to a woman in an extramarit

relationship in violation of her marriage vows; it was only as an adu
the wife could become an actress. The entire fifth book of the K
called Paradarika (Of other men's wives), is dedicated to her and h
The punarbhu, in contrast, either has been abandoned by he
husband or, having divorced him, has married a new man of her ch
possible that some of these women were involved in extramarital er
and remarried because they eventually ended up leaving their hus
marrying their lovers. Accordingly, the remarried woman was n
wife. Even though the Kamasutra includes a discussion of the
woman in the book on the wife, she was far from being a regula
nature of her second marriage, it is clear, was radically differen
of her first. First of all, the Kamasutra never mentions a remarr
as the only wife; she invariably appears in the company of anoth
wives, if her husband had more than one. It was as if the remarr
could not be the sole wife—she could only appear in a complemen
The remarried woman is very clearly distinguished by the Kamas
other wives in terms of her duties and expectations. She is never s
her own children but is instructed to take good care of the child
husband with his other wives.42 The figure of the remarried wo
Kamasutra is thought of almost exclusively in terms of pleasure, t
terms of bearing children. Unlike other wives, who were general
to the home, the remarried woman could accompany her husband
and interact with her husband's friends without any inhibitions.4'"'
Kamasutra equates her with the figure of the courtesan: "Like the
sex with a remarried woman, even from a higher caste, is not a
morality [dharma]."44 As is evident, the remarried woman occup
tion halfway between a wife and a courtesan.
The vesya as a potential erotic actress not only is not a wife bu
antithesis of the very idea of "wife"; the wife and the courtesan a
exclusive social figures. What is common, therefore, to all four ca
actresses is what separates them from the wife. The set of four ac
other words, is partly defined by what it excludes—the wife and
appropriate to her. Given that the courtesan stands at the far
from the very notion of the wife, she, more than the others, em
the characteristics of an actress in its completeness. The courtesan
is the most representative of all the actresses. The primacy of th
is also brought out by the fact that, when faced with the need t
the potential types of male actors in the erotic field, the Kamas

41 Ibid., 4:2:31-35.
42 Ibid., 4:2:44.
43 Ibid., 4:2:42, 44.
44 Ibid., 1:5:6. Doniger and Kakar translate punarbhu as "second-h
(Vatsyayana Kamasutra, 100).

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 The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica 13

it, promising to come back to the subject in the Vaisika book, which deals
with courtesans.4" If the discussion of types of potential actors belonged
in the book on the courtesan, then that was precisely because it was as a
patron of the courtesan that a man could best become an erotic actor.
Given that the list of actresses was an enumeration of the female char
acters in the domain of erotics, it was almost as if the Kdmasutra assumed
that the wife did not belong in the domain of erotics at all. Yet, it was as a
married couple that most men and women were likely to spend much of
their lives. What was it about erotics that made the figure of the wife unfit or
unwelcome? It was as if erotics and marriage were incompatible and exclusive
pursuits. The Kdmasutra, once again, does not ask these questions, nor does
it problematize the absence of the wife. Yet, by excluding the wife from its
list of dramatic personae, the Kdmasutra assumes something vital about
the nature of erotics and its essential character. In this regard, a seemingly
minor detail in the Kdmasutra is very revealing: "[Sexual intercourse] with a
courtesan and a remarried woman is neither approved \sista\ nor forbidden
[pratisiddha], because [after all, it is only] for pleasure [sukharthatvdt]."46
While making this characterization, the Kdmasutra has in view—unstated
though it is—the distinction, indeed contrast, between a man's sexual rela
tionship with his wife and his relationship with a courtesan. While a man's
relationship with a courtesan or remarried woman is characterized entirely
by pleasure, his relationship with his wife is characterized by the pursuit of
a child, preferably a son, to carry on the lineage and identity of the family.
For the Kdmasutra, erotics as the pursuit of pleasure found its purest
and most complete expression in a man's relationship with a courtesan. In
other words, given that pleasure was the determining goal in erotics, that
goal found its fulfillment in the figure of the courtesan, whose relationship
with her male patron was defined exclusively in terms of pleasure. Not
surprisingly, therefore, while the Manava Dharmasastra focused on the
husband-wife relationship, the Kdmasutra, in contrast, placed the courtesan
at the very foundation of erotics as an exceptional and exemplary figure. It
also becomes evident here why the Kdmasutra dropped the wife from the
list of actresses even as it included her in the moment of transgression of
her marriage vow as an adulteress. If it was only as an adulteress that the
wife could become an actress, then that was because it was only in adultery
that the pursuit of pleasure within marriage attained its autonomy.

The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica as Theater

A question remains, however: What was it about the nature and pursu
of pleasure that transformed the figure of the courtesan into an actress?
What was it about erotics that transformed it into a domain of theater? It

43 Shastri, Kamasutra, 1:5:28.

46 Ibid., 1:5:2.

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14 Sanjay K. Gautam

is worth repeating that for the Kamasiitra, pleasure did not con
of sex. Far from it: the sexual act had to occur within a narrativ
and the pursuit of pleasure consisted of the pursuit of both p
love, because kama means both "pleasure" and "love." That i
Kamasiitra insists that a courtesan must first set up a narrat
before it is followed with sex. The courtesan's skill in staging lo
making her patron believe that she was genuinely in love wi
often as important as sex.
Yet to maintain the appearance of love could not have been
courtesan, given that the profession was also her only means of
The real challenge for the narrative of love was to survive th
contact with that reality. The Kamasiitra addresses directly wha
the central issue in the life of a courtesan:

By its very nature the company of men for the courtesan is both out of
love-pleasure \rati\ as well as the profession or money \vrtti\. When
[she is] prompted by love-pleasure it is natural [svabhavikam\, [but
when] the purpose is money \artha] it is artificial [krtrm], [Even when
her love for her patron is only for the purpose of making money],
however, she should act as if it is natural, because only those women
who appear to be driven by love [kamapardsu] are worthy of a man's
trust. For the purpose of proving [the truth of her love to the man],
let her show complete absence of greed; and to protect her future
[relationship with him] she should refrain from acquiring money from
him by wrongful means.47

As the Kamasiitra sets it up in this, the very first lines of the book on cour
tesans, the courtesan's relationship to her patron consisted of two conflicting
elements: rati and vrtti. Given that they were self-evidently incompatible,
the courtesan carried a conflict at the very heart of her existence. Not only
did she need to maintain the appearance of real love, but she also had to
temper her love for someone with the knowledge that she was also practic
ing her profession, that the relationship could not and must not result in
marriage. The distinction between artificial and natural love is not a real
distinction. As the Kamasiitra itself adds, even artificial love must appear
natural, while the natural love of the courtesan must always be accompanied
with the awareness that it was also part of her profession.
The theater of erotics or erotics as theater was born directly out of this
existential conflict at the heart of the courtesan's being and the impera
tive, equally existential, of reconciling the conflict.48 The most important

47 Ibid., 6:1:1-6.
4i Based on his collection of aphorisms from classical Sanskrit in which courtesans are
compared to actresses, Sternbach concludes: "Courtesans' behavior is very often compared
with acting, and courtesans are compared with actresses or stage managers. And so, courte
sans, like actresses exhibit affection to gain money and pretend affection, love, anger, etc.,

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 The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica 15

strategy for accomplishing this task was to delegate the professional and
financial parts of the courtesan's life to her mother. The courtesan could
then maintain her amorous relationship with her man as if it was based on
love, altogether untouched by money: "Let [the courtesan] not argue about
money, and let her do nothing without her mother."49 This terse piece of
advice from the Kamasutra makes it clear that the courtesan must not touch
the issue of money even as she is expected to let her patron know that she was
in no position to disobey her mother: "Let her be dependent on a mother
who is of cruel character and who is after money alone; in the absence
of a mother, upon someone who is like a mother. Let her [the mother],
however, not be too fond of the lover, and let her try to take her daughter
away [from him] by force. Let the woman [nayika] express displeasure,
shame, embarrassment, and fear [at her mother's behavior], though she
ought not to defy [her mother's] command.'"0 The relationship between
the courtesan and her patron, then, was not a matter of a simple exchange
of money for sexual favors. Sex is important, of course, but it must come
as a moment in the unfolding narrative of love, kama in both its meanings
of "pleasure" and "love." This narrative, the core of which is starkly visible,
sets up perfectly a theater of erotic love: a greedy and cruel mother and the
long-suffering and helpless daughter madly in love with a man who now
must step in periodically with money to keep the evil mother at bay and
enjoy the company of his beloved. It is very clear here how theater is being
born out of the process of the courtesan trying to reconcile the two deeply
conflicting, indeed irreconcilable, sides of her existence. What seems like a
piece of theater is nonetheless indistinguishable from the courtesan's life:
life itself has been transformed into theater. Theater, in other words, was
the mode of being of the courtesan.
For the courtesan, appearance is reality, or, to be more precise, the
duality between appearance and reality is turned into the source of a new
kind of life. It could be said that the duality is not really abolished; erotics
assumes this duality and puts it to productive use. Any attempt to abolish
it altogether would end up in the courtesan either becoming a wife to her
patron or losing her patron altogether as a lover. After all, theater would
not be theater if it did not assume its difference from the real. Yet, at the
same time, theater must also create the appearance of reality. The self of the
courtesan is nothing but an appearance like that of an actor constructed
for the stage, effective only as long as she can make her patron take this
appearance for reality. This is at the origin of the courtesan's skills in acting.
She was playing a role, putting on an identity.

or use theatrical postures, or, since they have been trained on the stage, change their voices,
or act like stage-managers. Both courtesans and actors are also known to cause disorder"
(Ganika-v rtta-satngmhah, 145).
49 Shastri, Kamasutra, 6:2:60-61.
50 Ibid., 6:2:3-8.

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16 Sanjay K. Gautam

Did the courtesan have no real self then? As a courtesan, sh

life outside the circle of identity that formed the subject ma
Mdnava Dharmasastra's vision of a caste-based society, where
was nothing more than a means to procreate sons and perpetu
family and caste. Not surprisingly, the Manava Dharmas'dstra
anything to say about the courtesan, focused as it is on the preser
perpetuation of caste and family identity.31 In this regard, it is
that sddhdrani (general woman) and sdmdnyd (common wo
two generic terms designating courtesans throughout ancien
medieval India.32 The designations "general" and "common" r
fact that the courtesan did not belong to anyone in particula
woman without a husband and a family—a woman without a
ity and identity. At the same time, however, it was precisely be
courtesan was a woman without an identity that she could t
identity and feel at home in it. It was for this reason that court
often recruited by the state in ancient India as spies.3"

The Courtesan as Wife in the Field of Erotics as Theater

The logic of the theater that characterized the life of the courtesan and th
domain of erotics is pushed to its limit in the Kdmasutra, where it culmi
nates in the invention of a new form of existence that could only be called
a parallel or virtual mode of existence. This limit is reached in the figure o
the ekacarini(courtesan as wife). The word ekacarini means "wife," but
in the book on courtesans, it means the courtesan who stays with one p
tron for a variable but significant period of time, often running into years,
like a devoted wife. In this instance, the courtesan takes on the role of the
wife for her own pleasure and for the pleasure of her patron-husband; she
assumes the subjectivity of the wife. In this transformation, even married
life is turned into a stage. As I have discussed above, the figure that comes
closest to occupying the opposite end of the social spectrum to the wif
is the courtesan. Yet, as an ekacarini, the courtesan might become a wife.
Indeed, in the Kdmasutra pleasure found its most complete expression in
the figure of the courtesan-wife. In the relationship between the courtesan
wife and her patron-husband, sex occurred as the culmination and fulfillmen
of the narrative oflove. Every care was taken by the courtesan to give the
relationship the form and flare of a love affair. The Kdmasutra's advice to
the potential courtesan-wife makes it clear that money in exchange for se
was not to be the most important thing on her mind: "Even though invite
[by a patron] she should not agree in haste, because men despise what

31 Ludo Rocher, "The Kamasutra: Vatsyayana's Attitude toward Dharma an

Dharmasastra," Journal of the American Oriental Society 105, no. 3 (1985): 526.
3 Bhattacharji, "Prostitution in Ancient India," 33.
53 Sternbach, "Legal Position of Prostitutes," 54-56.

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 The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica 17

easily acquired."04 This advice goes against the usual image of a courtesan
as someone for whom money alone matters. The courtesan is expected
to be looking for a relationship, not just money, in exchange for sexual
favors. The courtesan is also advised not to rush into a relationship. The
wish, it is apparent, was to win the love of her patron and to not allow
herself to be used merely as an object of sexual gratification; she wants,
in other words, to be treated as a beloved.
The Kamasutra instructs the courtesan to initiate a carefully orchestrated
process made to appear as a series of coincidences to seduce the patron into a
long, erotic affair. She is told to hire an elaborate staff, including a masseur,
singer, dancer, jester, barber, launderer, beggar, libertine, and pander, to help
her in this purpose. Before initiating the affair, the courtesan is encouraged
to find out the true nature of her future patron: "In order to find out the
state of his feelings [bhavajijnasa], let her appoint her servant, masseur,
singer, and jester; or in their absence let her send the libertine, etc. From
them let her find out his [sense of what is] pure [and what is] impure, his
passions and aversions, his [emotional] attachments and nonattachments,
and his generosity or lack thereof. [After determining] the possibility [of a
relationship], let her plan love [pritim yojayet] under the guidance of the
pander."55 The last sentence is revealing: it clearly indicates the deliber
ately constructed nature of love between the courtesan and her patron. In
this regard the term bhavajijnasa (the wish to know the man's bhava) is
also significant. Bhava, though often translated as "nature," is one of the
most important categories in the Ndtyas'dstra (Treatise on theater)—the
foundational text on theater in Indian culture—and, roughly translated,
it means "emotion," such as love, fear, and anger.36 What the courtesan
was instructed to find out about her potential patron, therefore, was his
emotional makeup or profile. It was as if the patron was auditioning for a
role in a dramatic narrative of love crafted for him by the courtesan.
After her initial investigation, the courtesan sets up a series of moves
to establish contact with her potential patron so as to initiate a carefully
calibrated process of seduction:

Let the libertine bring the man to her house, under the pretext of
witnessing the fights of quails, cocks, or rams, or of hearing a parrot
or a mynah talk, or of watching a play, or some other art; or he may
bring her to his house. At the arrival of the man to her house, let the
woman give him something capable of arousing his love and curiosity,
some present as a token of her love, telling him that it was [meant]

s4 Shastri, Kamasutra, 6:1:21.

55 Ibid., 6:1:22-24.
86 Natyas'dstra. See vol. 1, chaps. 6 and 7. M. Ghosh, ed., The Natyasastra, ascribed to
Bharata Muni, Sanskrit text, vol. 1 (Calcutta: Manisha Granthalaya, 1967); Ghosh, ed., The
Natyas'astra, ascribed to Bharata Muni, Sanskrit text, vol. 2 (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica
272 A, 1956).

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18 Sanjay K. Gautam

exclusively for his enjoyment. [Then] wherever it pleases him,

call a party and entertain him there.37

What is remarkable is that the initiative seems to always be in

of the courtesan. To extend the theater analogy, in this play the
is the playwright, director, and actor all at the same time. Ha
seduced into a relationship, the patron finds himself slowly grow
role scripted for him by the courtesan. It brings him pleasure beca
designed with his likes and dislikes in mind. Equally as important i
narrative was meant to help the courtesan realize her own fantas
Once the courtesan has successfully won her patron's love,
structed to settle into the role of a wife.'"'8 She constructs for h
identity of a wife in relation to her patron-husband. She doe
any makeup and jewelry when he is away.°9 She offers prayers t
and performs many rituals as a token of her gratitude at the ret
patron-husband.60 She tells him she would have died had he
back.61 She trains herself into identifying with him so closely an
that the ebb and flow of her own emotions mimic those of her man. The
KAmasutm says: "She should hate those he hates, and like those he likes.
. . . She should become happy when he is happy and sad when he is sad."62
In her the man should be able to confide the tales of his woes and triumphs
with the assurance that it will find attentive ears and an empathetic heart.
Such emotional attunement on the part of the courtesan as wife would
come across to the man as a sign of her deep and abiding love.
The role of a wife, however, was not complete without a child, especially
a son, because, in the period in which the Kamasutra was written, a married
couple without a child was not yet a family. The Kamasutra, not surpris
ingly, therefore, tells the courtesan-wife to say to her patron-husband that
"she wants to have a son with him and does not want her life to be longer
than his."63 Yet even as she was instructed to express this wish, she knew
that her patron-husband was unlikely ever to acknowledge publicly that
he had a child with her. It is well known that the children of courtesans in
ancient and early medieval India were also persons without identity. This
was particularly true of sons, because daughters were almost invariably
trained to follow in the footsteps of their mothers.64 Sons often drifted

°7 Shastri, Kamasutra, 6:1:25-29.

58 Ibid., 6:2:1.
59 Ibid., 6:2:63.
60 Ibid., 6:2:67-71.
61 Ibid., 6:2:72.
62 Ibid., 6:2:22.
63 Ibid., 6:2:44.
64 Even though others did join the ranks of ganika, it was preferable to have the daughters
of ganikas carry on the legacy. According to the Arthasastra, the laws of inheritance in the
case of ganikas followed the maternal line. The ganika's daughter, sister, or mother, not her
son, inherited her property at her death. In this regard, a statement from the Kuttanimata,

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 The Courtesan and the Birth of Ars Erotica 19

away from their mothers in the absence of any defined role for them in
the household.16° Given this historical reality, the courtesan's wish to have
a child with the man did not carry any real meaning except as a gesture; it
showed how much she loved him and her willingness to provide a complete
family for him, virtual though it was.
In the display of her fidelity and love to her beloved patron-husband,
the courtesan-wife was not afraid to embrace death itself—the highest test
of true love: "If her mother takes her elsewhere by force, then she yearns
for poison, fasting to death, a dagger [to kill herself], or a rope [to hang
herself]."66 This tale about her evil mother forcing her to go with another
man and thus provoking her into threatening suicide is made to appear all
the more authentic by having one of the courtesan's hangers-on bring the
news to the man instead of her enacting it in front of him: "Let her con
vince the man [ndyaka] of this [suicidal state of mind] through her secret
agents."67 She means to create the impression that her love for him was not
just a show, it was authentic. This tale is designed to serve two conflicting
purposes. It demonstrates to the man that she loves him desperately and
that she is ready to end her life if she is forced to lose him. But it also helps
serve notice to the man that if he really wants to keep her, he cannot afford
to forget her mother; he must keep her happy. In one stroke this little piece
of theater accomplishes brilliantly two seemingly conflicting and irreconcil
able goals: it brings more attention to the daughter and more money to
the mother without letting the two get entangled; it thereby scrupulously
maintains the narrative of pure love on the part of the daughter. It was as
an actress that the courtesan became a wife, and it was as an actor that the
patron became a husband. They lived their lives as if they were characters in
a work of fiction or literature onstage. If the Kdmasutra ends up elaborating
a mode of life that is lived as if onstage, then that is because kama as both
love and pleasure is located beyond the discourse and practice of identity.
According to Foucault, in ars erotica the notion of the self operates under
the sovereignty of pleasure; identity is nothing more than an instrument that
serves the need of pleasure—ars erotica requires the construction of new
subjectivities and identities in the pursuit ofpleasure. This was precisely how
the notion and practices of the self functioned in the Kdmasutra. The real

a much later text dealing with the lives of courtesans, is very revealing: "Only daughters are
praiseworthy; shame upon those who rejoice in the birth of a son." This shows just how
different the status of daughters was among courtesans, in contrast to the rest of society,
where sons were seen as the anchors of the family. See also Sternbach, "Legal Position of
Prostitutes," 31, 40.
65 According to Bhattacharji, even as some of these sons "without any social identity"
might have received training as musicians and actors for the stage, others not so fortunate
"lived in a brothel until they could eke out a livelihood for themselves. . . . [They] were
looked upon as waste products, like slag in a factory" ("Prostitution in Ancient India," 45).
66 Shastri, Kamasutra, 6:2:58.
67 Ibid., 6:2:59.

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20 Sanjay K. Gautam

scandal of the Kamasiitra, therefore, lies not in its unassumin

about matters of sex but in its audacity to offer a discourse th
the notion of self as if it was nothing more than a technolog
pleasure-love. It was from the imperative to invent new subje
identities that the pursuit of pleasure-love in the Kamasiitra
a form of theater, a form of art—ars erotica, properly defin
courtesan as its historical face.
In the Kamasiitra, however, it is also recognized that kama or pleasure
was only one of the multiple, often competing and conflicting, pursuits of
human life: dharma (morality and law), artha (power), and moksa (spiri
tual liberation). Even as it elaborated a system of ars erotica as a theater of
love-pleasure, the Kamasiitra conceded that not all of life could be turned
into a stage: the wife could not help but be a wife, and the courtesan could
never be a wife. Indeed, it was only in its difference from a world based
on multiple purusarthas, or the ultimate human ends, that the theater of
erotics held much of its promise and allure. In the process, the Kamasiitra
could not help but appear as a scandal and its dramatis personae as an as
sortment of scoundrels, but that was the inevitable price it had to pay in a
world of multiple ontologies at odds with each other.

About the Author

Sanjay K. Gautam is an assistant professor of history at the

versity of Colorado at Boulder, where he teaches South Asian his
He has recently completed a book manuscript titled "Foucault an
Kamasiitra-. The Courtesan, the Dandy, and the Birth of Ars Erot
Theater in Ancient India."

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