Analyzing an unknown manuscript on “śayanopacāra:” An abridgement of Dattaka’s work on courtesanry

Abstract

This paper examines a fragmented, unpublished, and previously unstudied manuscript of a Sanskrit text whose title, authorship and date remain uncertain. Seemingly, the text is an abridgement of the work of Dattaka, an oft-cited authority on courtesanry in premodern Sanskrit literary and intellectual traditions. Of its two surviving sections, the first section discusses the “signs” (liṅga) of eligible and ineligible lovers, while the second focuses on “acting in accordance with the lover” (kāntānuvṛtta), both attributed to Dattaka. However, his original work is no longer extant. His voice, as scholars have noted, survives primarily through quotations embedded in texts such as Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra, the Caturbhāṇi, and Dāmodaragupta’s Kuṭṭanīmata. Contributing to the existing scholarship, this paper offers some initial observations on the surviving manuscript to explore its place within the broader literary and intellectual traditions. Of its two sections, my primary focus is on the latter one, which elaborates on “ways of love making” (śayanopacāra)—a concept or set of practices listed as one of the arts (kalā) in Sanskrit texts like Bhoja’s Śṛṅgāraprakāśa, Yaśodhara’s Jayamaṅgalā, as well as Jaina Prakrit literature. I also investigate how this text might have both influenced and been influenced by other literary genres and how it reshapes courtesanry, particularly in relation to the Kāmasūtra’s treatment of “kāntānuvṛtta.”