Prarthna Shah

In the excerpt of the text Arthashashtra, by Kautilya, we get insights of the Lifestyle of the Men-About-the-Town, the Queens in the Harem and their lifestyle. Here, I concentrate on the description of the men-about-town. We understood that the men-about-town were involved in attaining their desires and pleasures throughout the day and seemed it to be the motive of the day. Dressing and pampering oneself in the daytime from the very start of the day, applying perfumes, and in the night spending nights with women, or fellow men and indulging in entertainment and playing games like gambling.

One could only find traces of description of the “women-about-town” and would have to read between the lines to find those. Speculating what would have been the ----- of women, what I try to show here is –

A beautiful young girl, just married, starts living at her husband’s house. Being isolated from the world and the practices around her, at her father’s house, she finds it difficult to the see and accept the lifestyle of the men-about-town. Be it inside the house or outside in the world, it was the same everywhere. Once when she encounters a group of monks and nuns, she learns the Dhamma taught by the Buddha and flows the path.

Often when people see a piece of source of history, tend to assume it being the only truth of the time and are unaware of the other side of the world. Hence there is a conscious intent of showing the girl finding the dhamma to be “a better option” because, even during those times there existed nuns and monks following Buddhism and Jainism, and nuns outnumbered monks then.