4. Advent of Kāmaśāstra

It can be argues that in a background of a rich society itself the amour and sensual pleasures became part of art and that a rich society was materialized approximately from 6^th century BCE. Kings and their relatives, landlords and chief merchants were the rich people at that society. It is known from the Pālī literatures that all of the sovereigns had many wives. Out of this, ladies imported as slaves from wars also resided in the palaces as servants and courtesans. Every landlord and merchant desired to imitate sovereigns by living with beautiful women. As a result they also started to accommodate female servants or maids along with their wives. Gradually a system of protecting beautiful women as a public property of rich society came into being. Professional groups of beautiful ladies who were well-versed in sexual arts evolved as a part of this system. The institution was called “Gaṇikā”^[1] originated from this process of evolution. The first half of 1^st and the latter half of 2^nd century CE. was prosperous period for gaṇikas. Trade relation with distant countries especially with Roman trade relation is the peculiarity of this period. This period witnessed great improvement and prosperity in all the fields of Indian social setup. This led to more surplus expenditure for the rich classes. Dancers, divine prostitutes, passionate and seductive women were respectfully elevated in the society. As a result sex became a vital part of people in the forms of peculiar science, art and aesthetics. Citizens, courtesans, goṣṭis, samājas and the sex literature became important factors of social life. This led to the attainment of supreme significance to Kāmapuruṣārtha and came to enjoy top hegemony in the society.

Vātsyāyana refers ten more predecessors of Kāmaśāstra in the text Kāmasūtra. According to him Bābhravya from Pāñcāla region firstly composed a treatise on Kāma and it aimed to provide special information about sex to the courtesans. Dattaka’s Vaiśika is another important text composed just before Kāmasūtra. It also gives the guidelines for courtesans. Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra is considered a well-designed and arranged thesis in this topic. Vātsyāyana represents the society of citizens. So, he views the entire socio-cultural and artistic field by emphasizing upon the central point of Kāma. It is the usual tendency of most of the Sanskrit works composed between the periods of second or third centuries of Common Era.