Gaṇikā

Gaṇikā or ganika (Sanskrit: गणिका) were female courtesans in early Ancient India, with their earliest reference in the Vedic period.

[1]Moti Chandra, an Indian scholar who suggested that "In the hierarchy of courtesans, the kumbhadasi occupied the lowest place and the Gaṇikās the highest.

[5] With that said, they were the pride and joys of the Kingdom, as they were honored by the King and nobles, praised by the public and every courtesan strived to be a Gaṇikā.

Gaṇikās are mentioned in Sanskrit literature under the context of Hinduism, which focuses on the four goals of human life or puruṣārthas, as well as other texts which falls under other religions such as Buddhism and Jainism.

"[11] Written by Yajnavalkya, it is a compilation or handbook focused on the laws and conducts which governs individuals social and ethical behaviour in society.

It was vitally important for other shastra (treaties) to be talking about Gaṇikās, because courtesans, were not just prostitutes there for the purpose of sexual pleasure but were state recognised and appointed institutionalised positions of the court in the Gupta Empire.

[14] According to Kautilya, Gaṇikās earned around 1,000 Karshapana, and their duties mostly constituted of attending to the King, to his every needs such as fanning him or fetching water for him.

[15] Gaṇikās in the Arthasastra suggests that even though the courtesans were highly prized and even paid well, they were also restricted to their specific duties as they could not freely follow their own path, and any trade or deals made were very strictly regulated.

Even so, they were important not only because of their economic contributions, but mostly and mainly because they were considered as necessary towards men to fulfil their desires and provisions were specifically made to establishing housing for courtesans near military camps.

The majority context of this compilation was focused on the knowledge and processes relevant to priests, but it also included the participation of women, particularly the Devadasi.

This is also evident in the Natysastra which was written by Bharata, a Brahman sage, around the 2nd century BCE, where ganikas instead of just being a courtesan was turned into a type of heroine or an idealized woman because they "should have the qualities of light-heartedness, exaltedness and expertise in dance, music and other arts.

Additionally, there is a narrational aim to turn the Gaṇikā into a kulavadhü (wife), this transformation is further complicated with Cārudatta's son refusing to acknowledge Vasantasenā because she didn't wear his mother's jewelry.

Also, as Shalini Shah, a scholar, states that Vasantasenā, herself goes through a psychological and symbolical change because she forsake her jewels (and therefore her pride as a courtesan) to Cārudatta's son, by placing them in his toy clay cart, hence the name.

[28] The Jataka tales is a body of text containing literature that is native to Indians who are mainly interested in the stories on the births and rebirths of Gautama Buddha.

Despite being a text focused on the Buddha, it makes many references to the types of beautiful women and the skills they need, such as the knowledge on the different branches of music and dancing, as this was important for royal entertainments.

As the term gana means to be in a group and to associate with, by adding a feminine suffix which is ika, the word Gaṇikā is derived.

Gaṇikās were mostly famous during the reign of the Gupta Empire, as this was the golden age of when the ideas of the court and courtliness was established and so was the position of courtesans.

Nitin Bora, a scholar suggested that a Gaṇikā social position could be lower than a doorkeeper or the most rich and powerful person in the state or city.

One might say that the body was treated as a legitimate tradeable commodity.This paints a picture that gaṇikās are empowered because they are taking their own lives by the reins and supporting themselves.

How much a Gaṇikās should charge will be based on several factors such as her social status (her lineage and her family standing), where her establishment is located, and the quality of both her business and the neighborhood, the customs of the region she lives in or has lived at, the time of the year, the habits of her clients, her worth, her cultural accomplishments in relation to her competitors (other local courtesans).

The ganikas were generally more educated and better skilled in the arts than the married women, and the nagarakas, though they had devoted wives at home, as the ideal of a waife drawn by Vatsyayana shows, were attracted by the intellectual and artistic qualities of the educated ganika.Praised by society and loved for their skills in arts and culture, they were aesthetic beings who refined the culture of Ancient India.

As Doris Meth Srinivasan, a historian of Indological studies and writer suggests: I propose that an ancient Pataliputra sculpture represents an image of a royal Ganika.

Yaksi being a name for a fertility figure, as the statue fits the characteristics of having large breasts, curved hips and a thin waist.

Her hand fan, which Srinivasan and other art historians, Frederick Asher and Walter Spink suggested that is a key accessory for courtesans.

The presence of the fly whisk, the reason for the slight bow, the general stylistic similarity with other pieces produced by royal ateliers in Pataliputra, the size of the figure, perhaps even the small tiara on the head, to say nothing of her exceptional beauty, all these become signposts designating the gaṇikā.As much as Srinivasan argues the statue is possibly an early art form of the Gaṇikās, it would open a can of worms into questioning the identity other early Indian sculptures or art of female figures.