Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to ponder about the specific precepts of the Indian courtesan’s dharma as referred to in some literary and epigraphic texts.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to ponder about the specific precepts of the Indian courtesan's dharma as referred to in some literary and epigraphic texts. I'll start my enquiry by quoting the narratives of several seventeenth and eighteenth-century European travellers who mention the peculiar 'code of behaviour' prescribed to courtesans - all of them accomplished performing artists - in the South Indian temples and royal courts. Their accounts provide a fascinating picture of the rich 'courtesan culture' that appeared so peculiar to European observers. For a more detailed account of the specific duties (dharma) of courtesans, I'll next explore various Tamil and Sanskrit sources. Finally, I'll analyze these references by comparing them to the ethnographic data I have collected during my fieldwork in South India. My aim is to show that in India's past a quite articulated 'courtesans culture' was considered 'necessary' in order to guarantee not only the transmission and development of the local performing arts, but also to maintain the proper 'balance' of the socio-cosmic order of the dharma on which the social and religious system of courtly and temple cultures were ontologically based.