CHAPTER IV.
THE LIFE OF A CITIZEN.[13]
Having thus acquired learning, a man, with the wealth that he may have
gained by gift, conquest, purchase, deposit,[14] or inheritance from his
ancestors, should become a householder, and pass the life of a citizen.
He should take a house in a city, or large village, or in the vicinity
of good men, or in a place which is the resort of many persons. This
abode should be situated near some water, and divided into different
compartments for different purposes. It should be surrounded by a
garden, and also contain two rooms, an outer and an inner one. The inner
room should be occupied by the females, while the outer room, balmy with
rich perfumes, should contain a bed, soft, agreeable to the sight
covered with a clean white cloth, low in the middle part, having
garlands and bunches of flowers[15] upon it, and a canopy above it, and
two pillows, one at the top, another at the bottom. There should be also
a sort of couch besides, and at the head of this a sort of stool, on
which should be placed the fragrant ointments for the night, as well as
flowers, pots containing collyrium and other fragrant substances, things
used for perfuming the mouth, and the bark of the common citron tree.
Near the couch, on the ground, there should be a pot for spitting, a box
containing ornaments, and also a lute hanging from a peg made of the
tooth of an elephant, a board for drawing, a pot containing perfume,
some books, and some garlands of the yellow amaranth flowers. Not far
from the couch, and on the ground, there should be a round seat, a toy
cart, and a board for playing with dice; outside the outer room
there should be cages of birds,[16] and a separate place for spinning,
carving, and such like diversions. In the garden there should be a
whirling swing and a common swing, as also a bower of creepers covered
with flowers, in which a raised parterre should be made for sitting.
Now the householder having got up in the morning and performed his
necessary duties,[17] should wash his teeth, apply a limited quantity of
ointments and perfumes to his body, put some ornaments on his person and
collyrium on his eyelids and below his eyes, colour his lips with
alacktaka,[18] and look at himself in the glass. Having then eaten betel
leaves, with other things that give fragrance to the mouth, he should
perform his usual business. He should bathe daily, anoint his body with
oil every other day, apply a lathering[19] substance to his body every
three days, get his head (including face) shaved every four days, and
the other parts of his body every five or ten days.[20] All these things
should be done without fail, and the sweat of the armpits should also be
removed. Meals should be taken in the forenoon, in the afternoon, and
again at night, according to Charayana. After breakfast, parrots and
other birds should be taught to speak, and the fighting of cocks,
quails, and rams should follow. A limited time should be devoted to
diversions with Pithamardas, Vitas, and Vidushakas,[21] and then should
be taken the midday sleep.[22] After this the householder, having put on
his clothes and ornaments, should, during the afternoon, converse with
his friends. In the evening there should be singing, and after that the
householder, along with his friend, should await in his room, previously
decorated and perfumed, the arrival of the woman that may be attached to
him, or he may send a female messenger for her, or go for her himself.
After her arrival at his house, he and his friend should welcome her,
and entertain her with a loving and agreeable conversation. Thus end the
duties of the day.
The following are the things to be done occasionally as diversions or
amusements.
1. Holding festivals[23] in honour of different Deities.
2. Social gatherings of both sexes.
3. Drinking parties.
4. Picnics.
5. Other social diversions.
_Festivals._
On some particular auspicious day, an assembly of citizens should be
convened in the temple of Saraswati.[24] There the skill of singers, and
of others who may have come recently to the town, should be tested, and
on the following day they should always be given some rewards. After
that they may either be retained or dismissed, according as their
performances are liked or not by the assembly. The members of the
assembly should act in concert, both in times of distress as well as in
times of prosperity, and it is also the duty of these citizens to show
hospitality to strangers who may have come to the assembly. What is said
above should be understood to apply to all the other festivals which may
be held in honour of the different Deities, according to the present
rules.
_Social Gatherings._
When men of the same age, disposition and talents, fond of the same
diversions and with the same degree of education, sit together in
company with public women,[25] or in an assembly of citizens, or at the
abode of one among themselves, and engage in agreeable discourse with
each other, such is called a sitting in company or a social gathering.
The subjects of discourse are to be the completion of verses half
composed by others, and the testing the knowledge of one another in the
various arts. The women who may be the most beautiful, who may like the
same things that the men like, and who may have power to attract the
minds of others, are here done homage to.
_Drinking Parties._
Men and women should drink in one another's houses. And here the men
should cause the public women to drink, and should then drink
themselves, liquors such as the Madhu, Aireya, Sara, and Asawa, which
are of bitter and sour taste; also drinks concocted from the barks of
various trees, wild fruits and leaves.
_Going to Gardens or Picnics._
In the forenoon, men, having dressed themselves should go to gardens on
horseback, accompanied by public women and followed by servants. And
having done there all the duties of the day, and passed the time in
various agreeable diversions, such as the fighting of quails, cocks and
rams, and other spectacles, they should return home in the afternoon in
the same manner, bringing with them bunches of flowers, &c.
The same also applies to bathing in summer in water from which wicked or
dangerous animals have previously been taken out, and which has been
built in on all sides.
_Other Social Diversions._
Spending nights playing with dice. Going out on moonlight nights.
Keeping the festive day in honour of spring. Plucking the sprouts and
fruits of the mangoe trees. Eating the fibres of lotuses. Eating the
tender ears of corn. Picnicing in the forests when the trees get their
new foliage. The Udakakashvedika or sporting in the water. Decorating
each other with the flowers of some trees. Pelting each other with the
flowers of the Kadamba tree, and many other sports which may either be
known to the whole country, or may be peculiar to particular parts of
it. These and similar other amusements should always be carried on by
citizens.
The above amusements should be followed by a person who diverts himself
alone in company with a courtesan, as well as by a courtesan who can do
the same in company with her maid servants or with citizens.
A Pithamarda[26] is a man without wealth, alone in the world, whose only
property consists of his Mallika,[27] some lathering, substance and a
red cloth, who comes from a good country, and who is skilled in all the
arts; and by teaching these arts is received in the company of citizens,
and in the abode of public women.
A Vita[28] is a man who has enjoyed the pleasures of fortune, who is a
compatriot of the citizens with whom he associates, who is possessed of
the qualities of a householder, who has his wife with him, and who is
honoured in the assembly of citizens, and in the abodes of public women,
and lives on their means and on them.
A Vidushaka[29] (also called a Vaihasaka, _i.e._, one who provokes
laughter) is a person only acquainted with some of the arts who is a
jester, and who is trusted by all.
These persons are employed in matters of quarrels and reconciliations
between citizens and public women.
This remark applies also to female beggars, to women with their heads
shaved, to adulterous women, and to old public women skilled in all the
various arts.
Thus a citizen living in his town or village, respected by all, should
call on the persons of his own caste who may be worth knowing. He should
converse in company and gratify his friends by his society, and obliging
others by his assistance in various matters, he should cause them to
assist one another in the same way.
There are some verses on this subject as follows:--
A citizen discoursing, not entirely in the Sanscrit language,[30] nor
wholly in the dialects of the country, on various topics in society,
obtains great respect. The wise should not resort to a society disliked
by the public, governed by no rules, and intent on the destruction of
others. But a learned man living in a society which acts according to
the wishes of the people, and which has pleasure for its only object is
highly respected in this world.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 13: This term would appear to apply generally to an inhabitant
of Hindoostan. It is not meant only for a dweller in a city, like the
Latin Urbanus as opposed to Rusticus.]
[Footnote 14: Gift is peculiar to a Brahman, conquest to a Kshatrya,
while purchase, deposit, and other means of acquiring wealth belongs to
the Vaishya.]
[Footnote 15: Natural garden flowers.]
[Footnote 16: Such as quails, partridges, parrots, starlings, &c.]
[Footnote 17: The calls of nature always performed by the Hindoos the
first thing in the morning.]
[Footnote 18: A colour made from lac.]
[Footnote 19: This would act instead of soap, which was not introduced
until the rule of the Mahomedans.]
[Footnote 20: Ten days are allowed when the hair is taken out with a pair
of pincers.]
[Footnote 21: These are characters generally introduced in the Hindoo
drama; their characteristics will be explained further on.]
[Footnote 22: Noonday sleep is only allowed in summer, when the nights
are short.]
[Footnote 23: These are very common in all parts of India.]
[Footnote 24: In the 'Asiatic Miscellany,' and in Sir W. Jones's works,
will be found a spirited hymn addressed to this goddess, who is adored
as the patroness of the fine arts, especially of music and rhetoric, as
the inventress of the Sanscrit language, &c., &c. She is the goddess of
harmony, eloquence, and language, and is somewhat analogous to Minerva.
For further information about her, see Edward Moor's 'Hindoo Pantheon.']
[Footnote 25: The public women, or courtesans (Vesya), of the early
Hindoos have often been compared with the Hetera of the Greeks. The
subject is dealt with at some length in H. H. Wilson's 'Select Specimens
of the Theatre of the Hindoos,' in two volumes, Trubner & Co., 1871. It
may be fairly considered that the courtesan was one of the elements, and
an important element too, of early Hindoo society, and that her
education and intellect were both superior to that of the women of the
household. Wilson says, "By the Vesya or courtesan, however, we are not
to understand a female who has disregarded the obligation of law or the
precepts of virtue, but a character reared by a state of manners
unfriendly to the admission of wedded females into society, and opening
it only at the expense of reputation to women who were trained for
association with men by personal and mental acquirements to which the
matron was a stranger."]
[Footnote 26: According to this description a Pithamarda would be a sort
of professor of all the arts, and as such received as the friend and
confidant of the citizens.]
[Footnote 27: A seat in the form of the letter T.]
[Footnote 28: The Vita is supposed to represent somewhat the character
of the Parasite of the Greek comedy. It is possible that he was retained
about the person of the wealthy and dissipated as a kind of private
instructor, as well as an entertaining companion.]
[Footnote 29: Vidushaka is evidently the buffoon and jester. Wilson says
of him that he is the humble companion, not the servant, of a prince or
man of rank, and it is a curious peculiarity that he is always a
Brahman. He bears more affinity to Sancho Panza, perhaps, than any other
character in western fiction, imitating him in his combination of
shrewdness and simplicity, his fondness of good living and his love of
ease. In the dramas of intrigue he exhibits some of the talents of
Mercury, but with less activity and ingenuity, and occasionally suffers
by his interference. According to the technical definition of his
attributes he is to excite mirth by being ridiculous in person, age, and
attire.]
[Footnote 30: This means, it is presumed, that the citizen should be
acquainted with several languages. The middle part of this paragraph
might apply to the Nihilists and Fenians of the day, or to secret
societies. It was perhaps a reference to the Thugs.]