Prostitution

Prostitutes or courtesans were a regular
feature of ancient Indian life. But far
from simply offering sexual pleasure,
these prostitutes were in many cases
women of culture and learning. One of
the sections in the Kama Sutra pertains
to such individuals, and the author
Vatsyayana portrays prostitutes as
women who, while clearly outside normal society, have far greater independence than most women. One finds a
similar picture in The Little Clay Cart
(Mrcchakatika), a drama in which the
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Priyadas
courtesan Vasantasena is sought by all
the men of the city because of her beauty,
wealth, and mastery of the sixty-four
aesthetic arts. This picture is doubtless
idealized and was probably realistic for
only a tiny fraction of the women plying
the sex trade, however.
The existence of prostitution also
appears in relation to a group of women
connected to certain temples. Called
servants of the deity (devadasis), these
women were not allowed to marry.
Instead, they were considered to be
married to the god, for whom they
would sing, dance, and perform various
rites, just as any Hindu wife would for
her husband. These women could hold
property and resources of their own, but
their status was clearly unusual, and it
was not uncommon for them to develop
long-term liaisons with local men for
mutual enjoyment. In some cases this
degenerated into prostitution—through
which such women became a source of
income for the temple—but in other
instances they were successful in retaining some autonomy. Since Indian independence in 1947 there has been a
prohibition on initiating devadasis, but
some older women remain who were
initiated before that time. In 1995, a
furor developed when the Jagannath
temple management committee began
to explore the possibility of new initiations. For further information see
Vatsyayana (tr. Alain Daniélou), Kama
Sutra of Vatsyayana; and Frederique
Apffel Marglin, Wives of the God-King,
\1985. See also Yellamma.