Technologies of the Self: Courtly Artifice and Monastic Discipline in Early India Author(s): Daud Ali Source: Journal

of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 41, No. 2 (1998), pp. 159-184 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632263 . Accessed: 30/06/2011 13:56
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TECHNOLOGIESOF THE SELF: COURTLY ARTIFICEAND MONASTIC DISCIPLINEIN EARLY INDIA

BY

DAUD ALI
and (Schoolof Oriental AfricanStudies,London) Abstract Thispaperattempts link the growthof courtly monastic to and as historipractices related cal phenomena earlyhistoricIndia.The consolidation urbancourtsand monastic in of communitiesrepresented departure a from the Vedic way of life in the contextof new social relationsand increasing urbanisation. Urbansociety and Buddhist as monasticism, scholars have pointedout, werelinkedmaterially sociologically. and This paperexploresthis linkage further. the level of practice, At and around centred courtlycomportment monastic discipline, artificeand discipline,respectively, be seen as directinversionsof one another. can This and of about however,was complementary revealsa number shared opposition, assumptions "hermeneutics" phenomena, of "reality" leadingto a common apdespitecontrary ontological and for proaches implications practice. Uma Chakravarti has suggested that Buddhism exhibited a "dialectical relation-

ship"with the new society which emergedin the sixth centuryB.C.E., "demonstratingsimultaneouslyboth an oppositionto and unity with it."') This essay will attemptto develop this insightin some directionsit has not yet been taken. Briefly, I shall argue that courtlyand monasticpracticesgrew up in inextricable relation to one anotherin "early historic"India. Togetherthey formed an the opposing but interlockingwhole which represented new concernsof urban in ancientIndia.Courtlyand monasticcodes are perhapsbest conceived society of by what Michel Foucaulthas called "technologies the self"-practices which with the help of others, to effect "certainoperationson their permit agents, own bodies and souls, thoughts,conductand way of being so as to transform themselvesin orderto attaina certainstate."2) While the perfectedstates of the monk and courtierwere undoubtedlyquite different,as we shall see, I will argue that the technologiesdeployed for the achievementof these states share a common and novel conception of reality as a complex system of "signs," and "surfaces" be engaged and disengagedwith, manipulated to and "marks," deconstructed.
1) Chakravarti1996, p. 64. 2) Foucault 1988, p. 18. Brill, Leiden, 1998 ? Koninklijke JESHO41,2

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Vedic society, as is well known, had as its ideological foundationthe institution of the sacrifice, or yajhia.The Vedic pantheon and the social order it restedupon were not thoughtto be guaranteed the Vedic "textualcorpus"by the hallowed Vedas of post-Vedic India-but instead were understoodwithin the frameworkof the institutionof the sacrifice.The sacrifice,accordingto the samhitdsand brahmanas,was instrumental the organizationof polity and for Indeed it is from the sacrifice, we are told, that the naturalcosmos, society. human society, and even the Vedas themselves emerged.3) But what was the natureof the sacrifice?The Vedic texts conceived of the sacrificeas a feast, involving slaughter,cooking, and most importantly, eating. Indeed,eating formedone of the most important organizingideas of the Vedic world. As the ?atapathaBrahmanadeclares,"theeater of food and food indeed are everythinghere" (?B 11.1.6.19). At one level, the sacrifice was simply a gastronomicexchange. The gods were fed offerings at the sacrifice, in return for which they gave various boons, one the most importantof which was food.4)This exchange was so naturalizedthat the vdjapeyawas consideredto be the same as food and drink, (annapeya) (SB 5.1.3.3). Prajapatiperformed the sacrifice to become an "eater of food" (annddah) (SB 2.4.4.1) and the would-be sovereignto gain food from the four quarters(SB 13.1.1.4). Both the "natural" and the "social"worlds were conceived of as one continuous and "greatfeeding chain."5)If the gods fed from humans, humansin turnfed from animals, animalsfrom plants, and plants from water, which was given by the gods as the most basic of foods. As Brian Smith has insightfully pointed out, hierarchyin Vedic society was articulatedin alimentaryterms.6) Such gastronomic hierarchisationtook on forms too elaborate to enter into here.') For our purposes,it will be enough to note that the Vedic texts consistently portray the higher orders of society literally "consuming"the lower orders. The texts repeatedly claim "the ksatriya is the feeder (attd) and the
peasantry the food (annam)" (?B 6.1.2.25).8) The benefit of "eating" gained by
3) See the Purusa Sfikta (RV 10.90), where all of creation,was said to have emerged from the sacrifice. This included the Vedas themselves, in contrast to the later post-Vedic reversal of this relation. 4) By the late Vedic period the sacrificial offering was considered to be a substitute for the sacrificer. 5) Observed by Zimmerman 1987, p. 1, and developed at length by Smith 1990. 6) Smith 1990, p. 187. 7) This hierarchy was also sustained through secondary eating, where leftovers from the higher orders were considered suitable for consumption by lower orders of society. See Malamoud 1996, pp. 7-22. 8) Other references to the peasantry (vii) as the food of the higher orders:SB 3.3.2.8; SB 5.1.3.3; gB 1.3.2.15; SB 8.7.1.2; ?B 8.7.2.2; SB 5.2.1.17; SB 4.2.1.17; ?B 13.2.9.8. The

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the ksatriyaat the sacrifice thus was the guaranteeof the social order as his food. In this chain, the basic logic was that the eater was superiorto and more powerfulthan that which was eaten. Vedic practicewas explicitly agonistic. If sacrificeinvolved consumption, it also involved destruction; eating and killing were two sides of the same coin. The relationbetweeneater and eaten was that between victim and prey. Eating of was explicitly regardedas a perpetualreenactment the defeat and subjugation of one's rival. The chain of eating was thus a sort of "macrocosmicalimentaryviolence."9)The sacrifice,however, was perceivedby the Vedic texts not as violent but insteadas generative.Vedic hymns associatethe performance of the sacrificewith the generationof polity, society and prosperity. The massive slaughter of the advamedhaproduced sovereign power (RV 1.162.22). Indra's defeat and destructionof Vrtra broughtabout the sun sky and dawn (RV 1.32.4). While the origins of this generativeagonism may ultimatelyhave its originsin the "warrior" values of early Vedic society, therecan be no doubt that the institutionof the sacrificesustainedthis ideological unity between generation and destruction.The origin of the universe itself, we are increasingly told in the "later Vedic" literature,emerged from the sacrifice.10) The Purua later hymn of the Rk Samhita,describesthe origin of the universe sasiakta, from the sacrificialdismemberment Purusa.The sacrificeentailedthe simulof taneous destructionand generationof life-two processes ultimatelyindistinct in Vedic ideology. The sacrificeand the world it supported were profoundlytransformed the in the "earlyhistorical" periodin Indianhistory.Increasingsedentarization, spread of agriculture and intensifiedurbanization formed part of new social relations new social categories like householder (gahapati), renouncer consolidating
(?ramana), monk (bhikku), and townsman (ndgaraka). The Vedic sacrifice was

in increasingly deemed inappropriate this new context. The most vehement of Vedism came from the hand of the Buddhists, who denounced critique the sacrifice as a violent, selfish and destructiveinstitutionwhich helped to keep man caughtwithinthe endlesschainof humanexistenceknownas sarhsdara. As Buddhismgained hegemony in early historic South Asia, the displacement of the sacrificialcult was also reflected,in complex ways, in the formulation of the Grhya and Dharmasiitras.1") post-VedicSdstricliteraturenot only The
Brahmin, of course, remained exempt from this food chain. During the rdjasuya the priest made everything except the Brahmins, who remained inedible (anddya) into food for the king SB 5.3.3.12. 10) Roy 1996. 11) This is quite evident in Manu's discussion of eating meat and the sacrifice, where a

9) Smith 1990, p. 183.

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reducedthe scope and importance the Srautarites but also re-organized of practice along new lines, like the elaborationof the four stages and four goals of human life. Below I shall focus on two changes in early historic India, both of which emergedfrom the collapse of the Vedic way of life: first, the growth of more or less organizedforms of renunciation; and second, the emergenceof what I will call for lack of a betterterm a "science of courtliness,"by which I mean the elaborationof an aesthetics and semiotics of comportment a class of for men and women associated with the court of a king. Both of urban-dwelling these developmentscan be consideredas "technologies" the self, as systems of of rules and interdictions to transform individualagents.I will suggest designed that these technologieswere intimatelylinked. The institutionof the court had its own Vedic prehistory.We find terms like sabha and samiti in Vedic literature,terms which seem to denote a group of elders associatedwith the king/chieffor counsel, battle,dicing, or in the case of the sabha with occasionaljudicial functions.The evidence, however, is somewhat ambiguousas to the actual compositionand practiceof these bodies. The sabhd, accordingto R.S. Sharma,survivedinto later and post-Vedictimeswhile the samiti became obsolete.12) Whateverthe case, the courts of early historic India representa significantdeparture from Vedic practice,and became the loci of a very differentorganizationof practicesand discourses. Courts underwenta double transformation post-Vedic India. On the one in hand, they were elaborated and expanded. The meeting place of the chief, which duringVedic times may have been a simple open space where elders or powerful lords met to transactcattle and dice, expandedconsiderablyin postVedic times to include a variety of practicesand concernswhich hithertohad remaineduntheorized.Its spatial dimensionsgrew to include not only the asbut sembly hall where the king received his underlords, the entireresidenceof the king-his living quarters, gardens,royal streets,bathinghalls, kitchensand This situationis exemplifiedin theArthasastra,where the arrangeantahpuram. ment of the king's quarters, treatment his wives and his daily routineare the of of political and fiscal policy. placed alongside aspects
numbersomewhat contradictoryargumentsare made both to justify and displace meat eating in the context of the sacrifice. Such arguments,which attemptto defend the sacrifice as nonviolent because of its generativity, represent a line of argumentationthat only makes sense 5.39-44. given their splitting through critique. See Mdnavadharmaadstra, 12) Sharma 1991, pp. 116-7.

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Ideologically,however, the court underwenta simultaneousprocess of concentrationor distillation.The king's residencebecame a place of dense representationalpractice.Its elements came to be imbuedwith an increasinglyrich semioticity.The balcony,the pleasuregarden,the parrot,the creeper,the innerquarters,the pavilion, not to mention a whole cast of characters,all emerged
as important dramatis personae in post-Vedic India. This second development

occurredin the context, of course, of a novel discursiveform, kdvya, courtly poetry,which emergedin "earlyhistoric"India.I will not here pursuethe deepest origins of courtly poetry, which undoubtedly have their roots in the eulo-

gistic hymns of the Vedas themselves, but rather note the disjuncturethat I courtlypoetryrepresented. will come to what I considerto be the chief characteristicof this disjuncture shortly.But the overalldescriptivecontextin which we may understandthis disjunctureis the emergence of new categories into which the concerns of the court mentionedabove were fitted. I have in mind here the organizationof human life into the domains of dharma, artha and kdmaand moksa (the purusarthas,or goals of man) which first emergedin the post-Vedic Grhya Stitras,texts roughly datableto the 5th/4th centuriesB.C.E. In this formulation, quest for liberation,or moksa,was counterposed the the to of the three other goals, called the three-fold path (trivarga),which pursuit were concernedwith conductin worldly life. The three-foldway describedthe goals pursuedby the householder, whether rural or urban,while the remaininggoal of human life, moksa, or liberation, was pursued the renunciate. by Socially,this placedthe renunciatein directopposition to the householder.This oppostion,however,was complementary, since the renunciateoften dependedheavily upon the householderfor his means of livelihood. This relation has been explored in the case of Buddhism Uma by Chakravarti,who has underscoredthe dependence of the Buddhist sarigha, on throughdonationsand recruitment, the newly emergingclass of urban and householders(gahapatis)residentin towns and the countryside.13) agricultural Below I will attemptto extend this line of thinkingby illustrating how the techof Buddhistmonasticdisciplinewas also constitutedin "complementary nology opposition"to the practicesof the urbancourts. in Particularly important urbanand courtlylife were the prescriptive injunctions aroundthe goals of acquisition(artha) and pleasure(kdma).This discussion will focus mainly on the concept of pleasureand its links with Buddhist discipline. While the term kdma certainlyhad antecedentsin Vedic India, its theorizationas a realm of human effort unto itself is certainly a post-Vedic
13) Chakravarti1996.

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phenomenon.In Vedic texts the idea of desire is most frequentlyattachedto an object, specifically the desire for the fruits or boons of the sacrifice. And like the sacrifice,kama is indissociablyequatedwith the generativity,progeny, and production. Sexual referencesin the Vedic corpus,then, are inevitablyconnected to the sacrifice and the concept of "fecundity."While some scholars have attemptedto turn this sexual symbolisminto the basis of a Vedic erotics or sexology,14) Sushil KumarDe has rightly pointed out that there is no indication in the Vedic literature eroticswas a subjectof special study."') that Early notions of desire, as we shall see, were significantlymodifiedin post-Vedicand early historic India. For one, kdma became one among three goals of human life in this world, all of which were counterposed liberation to from humanlife. thus, became a realm of theorizationand a way of organizingknowlKdma, edge and practice.It became the subjectof a scientificdiscipline(fdstra)which in eventually culminatedin the composition of Vatsyayana'sKdmasuttra the early third centuryC.E.16) Whatwas the natureand scope of kdmain ancientIndia?Vatsyayanadefines kdma as the activity (pravrtti) of the senses while engaged with particular or sense-objectsas superintended directed (adhisthita)by the mind (manasd), (KS along with the soul (dtmasarhiyuktena) 1.2.11). This definitionneeds some consideration. There are several entities mentionedhere--the senses, the mind, and the soul. Kdma is not understoodas only sensual in nature;that is, it did not reside in the sense-organs(indriyas)alone. Both aesthetic and philosophical discourses agreed that kdma was a condition that arose in the manas, an and entity that encompassedEuropeannotions of both "heart" "mind."It is for or this reason that kdmawas known as "mind-born," manasija.In this scheme the mind formed a link between the inner elements of the self-the soul, consciousness, and intelligence--on the one hand, and the senses on the other; it formeda bridge,as it were, betweenthe innerconstituentsof the person and the outside world. The mind organizedindeterminate sensorydata into determinate conceptualand perceptualforms, and from this process a series of both affective and volitional states arise, one of which was pleasure.17)Since the mind
14) Fiier 1967. 15) De 1969, p. 89. 16) The Kdmaseitrais variously dated between the first and fourth centuries C.E. References to the simultaneous rulership of the Abhiras and Andhras seems to place the text in the early third century C.E. Vatsyayana's geographical knowledge and heavy reliance on the Vedic school of the Apastambins, probably locates the text's composition somewhere in southwestern India. For a review of the evidence, see Chakladar 1954, pp. 11-35; 69-72. For a discussion of the differentchronological strata of the Kdmasatra,see Trautmann1971, pp. 169-73. 17) In this sense kdma included within it both the affective connotation of the English word "pleasure"as well as the volitional sense of the word "desire."

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formedone of the exteriorsheathsof the self, its progenycould hardlybe theorized as a defining"source"of selfhood as the libido in bourgeoispsychology. Two broadpoints can be noted in regardto Vatsyayana'sdefinitionof pleasure. First, kdmais understoodas a generalizedphenomenon that could be considered apart from its immediateobject, and its resulting"product." Perhaps the most novel aspect of kdmain post-VedicIndiawas its delinkingfrom generativity. The science of pleasure did not find its home in the conjugal will for progeny;the wife does not figure among "independent women"who were as potential subjects of Vatsyayana'streatise, and remains a minor regarded figure in "erotics."In fact, the operativeprincipalof pleasure,as we shall see, was not generativity,or fertility at all, but a sensual experienceor "aesthetic" sensationin which the questionof "fertility" productivity conspicuously and are absent. Expectedly,kdma also includedmuch more than we understand the by treatserotic pleasureas exembourgeoisnotion of sexuality.While Vatsyayana plary and central to his subject, the Kdmasatradevotes only one of its seven books to the topic of sexual union (samprayoga).In defining the boundaries of his treatise in the first book of the Kdmastitra, Vatsyayanarecommends that his treatise be studied in conjunctionwith sixty-four knowledges allied to the Kdmasutra, which togetherformedpartof a more embrac(anigavidydh.) pleasure"Kamasastra(KS 1.3.16).18) Included in this list of "science of ing sixty-fourknowledges is a vast arrayof activities, includingdancing(nrtyam), singing (gitam), the cultivation of plants (vrksayurvedayoga), inlaying floors
with jewels (manibhumikakarma),adornment(bhiasanayojanam),training parrots samasyaparanam), types of gambling (dyttividesa), flower arrangement (puspd-

and mainas to speak (Sukasdrikapraldpana), completingpoetic stanzas (kdvya-

and staranam), playingmusicalinstruments (vadyam), painting drawing (dlekhyam), beds and couches (?ayanaracanam), combinationsof stringinggarlands setting
(malyagrathanavikalpa), fixing crowns and chaplets (Sekharakdpipd.ayojanam) anointing the body (utsddana),shampooing(sarhvdhana), cleaning one's hair (kefamardana), applying perfumes (gandhayuktih), coloring teeth, garments, and limbs (dasanavasandrigardgah), putting on clothes (nepathyaprayoga),and earthe examination of beautiful jewels (rtipyaratnaparings (karnapattrabhanigah),

riksd),and athletics(vydydmika) 1.3.16). The list of sixty-fourknowledges, (KS known from other contemporary reveals a whole array of activity sources,19) subsumedunderthe generalconcernof "pleasure" early India-a very wide in the elevation of kdmato a general theoreticallevel. provenanceindicating
18) Presumably,these particularknowledges would have had their own prescriptivetreatises, but few have come down to us. 19) Mention is made of a similar list in the twelfth chapter of the Lalitavistara. See RajendralalMitra 1882, pp. 213-14.

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Unlike modern "sexuality," pleasure here, as in the courtly societies in Europe,was conceived of as the exclusive but "public"concernof a class of The sociological locus of these practicesis explicitly designatedin the 61lites. addressesitself most primarilyto the householdKdcmasatra.The Kdmastitra possessing city-dwellerof means, or ndgaraka.From this central but generic category of the urbanhouseholderVatsydyanaintroducesa numberof others, all of which center aroundthe court of a king, who himself comes in for special treatmenton several occasions in the text as the most pre-eminentndagaraka. Vatsydyanabegins by saying that a man should "establishhimself as a householder,and take up the life of a city dweller (ndgaraka),stayingin a city
(nagaram), a port town

place possessed of good people" (KS 1.4.1-2). If the city-dwelleris here conceived as a subspeciesof the more general category of householder,the main pre-requisitefor his existence was wealth. Wealth, accordingto Vatsyayana, could be obtainedfrom inheritance(anvaydgata)or self-acquisition(adhigata) throughdonation,conquest,or labor (KS 1.4.1). The social circle of the nagaraka was inhabited by persons defined according to both their learning and wealth. The gosthi, according to Vatsyayana,was an occasion when men of similar education,wealth, intelligence,disposition,and age sat in conversation with courtesanseither in a ndgaraka'shouse, court of assembly (sabhd), or courtesan'sresidence (KS 1.4.34). The cast of charactersin this world, howfor ever, containedthose whose wealth was less than adequate.Thepithamarda, was a man who lacked wealth but who was neverthelesswell-versed example, in the sciences of kdma (KS 1.4.44). The vita was a well-regardedman who had once possessed the wealth and sophistication converseamong ndgarakas to as an equal, but had subsequentlysquandered fortune (KS 1.4.45). These his men were conceived as "ministers" who acted as go-betweensand (mantrinah) advisors in the various liaisons of the town-dweller(KS 1.4.46). The terminology used here indicatesthe close connectionthat the world of the city-dweller had to that of the king. We may correctlyassume, I think, that the ndtgaraka denotednot just any city dweller,but a man who formedpartof ruling classes in early India which were centeredaroundthe courts of the kings and men of great political power. These men were part of the royal court's wider social what might be bettertermedas a "courtsociety."20)The fundamental penumbra,
20) Here I differ from some commentatorswho, imposing developments in early modern Europe onto the Indian context, pose urban life in early India in opposition to royal courts. See in particular,the discussion of the development of kdvya traditions in Lienhard 1984, pp. 53-86. There is no evidence in early India of such discontinuitybetween city and court, either socially or ideologically.

(pa.tana),

a mountain town (kharvatam) or any big

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characteristic this courtlyworld as a whole was its materialand ideological of from the productiveclasses of society. The richesthouseholders who separation formedthe subjectsof the Kdmasatragained theirwealth from non-productive exchangerelations.The emergenceof a class whose unity lay in such economic foundationsexplains some of the characteristics courtly practice.Ideologof ically, the world of the court with its graceful and sublime actors was seamlessly constructedabove the classes whose productivelaboursustainedit. It is no wonder that in contradistinction Vedic kdma,kdmasatra,or the science to of pleasure,delinked generativityand procreation from sexual relations,while simultaneously expandingits own field of operation. The social world of the Kdmasatra,as Sushil KumarDe commentedlong of ago, was closely linked to the development aestheticforms. The urbanworld describedin the Kdmashtra closely mirrorsthe social world in which the early court poetry flourished.The second book of the Kdmasfitra sexual union, on enumeratesthe combinationsand compatabilities the various categoriesof of characters which populatedthe early courtlypoetryas unnamedlovers. Not surprisingly,the systematicdistinctionbetween various types of heroes and heroines found in the Kdmasitra is a predilectionthat also appearsin the earliest treatiseson poetics. Prescriptive texts like the Kdmasatra, which tell lovers how to behave, thus, connect up with the poetic texts which tell poets how to write about love. Thus it is not surprisingthat the Kdmasaitra among the sixtylists fourknowledgesthat comprisethe science of pleasureboth the compositionand of of interpretation poetry (KS 1.3.15). The interpretation poetry included a knowledge of its signs and repertoires.The Kdmasutrawould have its city dweller cultivateboth the techniquesof sensuallove as well as the finerpoints of its representation. is thus that the audiences of courtly poetry identified It for quite easily with the charactersit represented, it is clear from the Kdmasatra that these characters were indeed the people of the urbancourts. The underlyingprincipleof courtly practicein early India was that of "artifice." This idea is implicit in Vatsyayana'svery definitionof pleasure.Pleasure arose from the experienceof the outer domains of the self; and courtly practices were thus pre-occupiedwith exteriority.This concern is reflectedin the of residence.The innerapartments minare spatialorganization the ndgaraka's described and do not form a great concern in the imally Kcmastltra,except in the case where the townsmanor king has more than one wife, in which case the inner apartments take on a differentsort of importance. his chapteron In the routine of the townsman, however, Vatsyayana dwells at length on the
arrangement of the outer chambers and garden of the townsman's house (KS 1.4.5). Vatsyayana catalogues a variety of beds, cushions, spittoons, shelves, heroes (ndyaka) and heroines (ndyikd). These ndyaka and nayikd were the very

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musical and writing instruments,dice-boards,birds and flowers, swings and in seats that are to be arranged these places. It is in these outer chambersthat the townsmenmet his friendsand enjoyedthe companyof courtesansand independentwomen. This emphasis on exteriority,however, extended to the very structuringof courtly action. Pleasure was understoodmost centrally as an engagementwith surfaces,which in turnwas often conceived of as a "play"or "dalliance" (kridk).This notion of play, like Vatsyayana'sconceptionof pleasure itself, was not a universalhumanpropensityin Huizinga'ssense, but a speIt cific practicethat had its own logic and requiredproperinstruction. entailed not only sensual engagementbut semiotic manipulation. literCourtlyfashioningwas best denoted by the term "alarmkr"-meaning ally "to make ready,"but more specificallyconnotingthe activity of adornment or decoration.Words like alamkcra and dbharana,despite their earlierusage, came to have their particularmeaning of decorationor "adornment" only in of disciplineand science of "aesthetics."21) post-VedicIndia,as partof the birth and "courtliness" The close connectionbetween the emergenceof "aesthetics" in early India is revealednot only by theircommon sociology, but their mutual was an Self-adornment dependenceon the idea of artifice and ornamentation. for ornaextremelyimportantpracticein the courtier'sdaily life. The concern ment is clearly apparentin Vatsyayana'saccount of the daily routine of the ndgaraka.The nagarakabegins his day by cleaninghis teeth, washing his face and then by applyinga variety of cosmetics to his body: ointments,perfumes, and garlands (KS 1.4.16). He later beeswax, alaktaka, betel mouth-freshener changes and re-adornshimself before an evening out with his associates (KS 1.4.22). Many of the sixty-fourauxiliaryknowledgesconcernone or other aspect of bodily adornment-anointing the body (utsddana),shampooing(sarhvahana),
cleaning one's hair (kesamardana), applying perfumes (gandhayuktih), color-

putting on clothes ing teeth, garments, and limbs (dasanavasandngardgah),

(nepathyaprayoga), ear-rings (karnapattrabhaigahd),and ornaments (bhiasanayojanam), and fixing crowns and chaplets (?ekharakdpitayojanam) (KS 1.3.16).

extendedits sway not only over the courtier'sbody, The concept of adornment

21) Gonda 1975a, pp. 270-71. Similarly, Gonda argues that the term dbharanam,derived from the verb dbharati meant to "bring near," in the Vedic corpus and only later came to Gonda 1975b, pp. 171-177. Gonda argues mean "wear,"and thus by extension, "ornament": and "abharana" that essentially religio-magical functions in Vedic litpossessed erature and society. The importantpoint here is that a science of aesthetic composition and "ala.mkara" practice around ornamentationis certainly post-Vedic.

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but a whole range of other practicesas well. Vatsyayanamentionsthe adornment of the groundwith jewels (manibhamikakarma), flower-arrangement (puspastaranam), making designs with rice and flowers (tandulapuspavalivikdLrah), making of garlands (mdlyagrathanavikalpdh), the arrangment of beds (?aya-

of (KS naracanam)and the construction toy cartsfrom flowers(puspasakatikd) indi1.3.16). The elevation of these activities into the status of "knowledges" for of cates the importance artificeas an organizingmetaphor all of courtlylife. are the sixty-fourknowledgesto be learnedby the ndagaraka a numAmong itself as a domain of ber of practiceswhich reveal the emergenceof language artifice.The ndgarakais not only to know barbaric tongues(mlecchitavikalpdh) but countries(de*abhdsavijidnam), also lexicons and the languagesof particular
(abhidhdnakosa), metre (chandojidanam), and the rules and figures of speech

used in poetry (kriydkalpah) (KS 1.3.16). In addition, Vatsyayanaincludes a numberof poetic and verbal games involving the completionof poetic stanof and riddles (durvdcakayoga) (KS 1.3.16). This treatment languageas a domain of effort,skill and virtuosityno doubtpresupposed earliernotionsof SanIndia came skrit as a "refinement." Nevertheless,the courts of post-Mauryan to conceive of languagein a new way-as a surfacethat could be manipulated in orderto convey pleasure. The most significant development in this regard was obviously the emergence of what Gonda has called "art-poetry,"or kdvya.22) The poetry that emergedat the courtsof the early historicalpolities markeda significantbreak, both thematicallyand stylistically,from Vedic hymnology.Kdvyaconcerneditself with new themes and images-those of the urbancourt-largely absent in the Vedic hymns. A particularly special arena of courtly artifice,for example, was the garden. The garden became inextricablytied to the pleasuresof the courtier theking,and"play-gardens" and and (drama) (kridavana) pleasure gardens of proliferatein post-Vedicliterature the Buddhistsfittas.Gardenswere crucial componentsin both the city-dweller'shouse and in royal palaces, which often had extensive groves attachedto them. WhereasVedic practicemade use of the materialand imagery of plants, trees and grains as elementsof food, fertility, and life-sap (consumed by the sacrifice), courtly languages focus on vines, Botanical creepers,buds, tendrils,flowers, petals as pleasurableadornments.23) forms a crucial registerin the representation courtlylove-play, and of imagery
zas (kdvyasamasyaparanam), the recitation of verses from memory (pratimdald),

22) Gonda 1975a, p. 271. 23) For a discussion of Vedic flora, see Smith 1994, pp. 208-40.

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the garden provides perhapsthe most importantrepertoireof signs in courtly poetry. This imagery, however, is aesthetic rather than sumptuary.That is, floral and botanicalimagery in kadvya does not function as part of an alimentary and consumptivechain as the Vedic flora,but insteadas radiantand beautifying artifice. Stylistically, while the Vedic hymns certainly contained figures of speech and rhetoricalflourishessomewhatakin to what were later called "ornaments," theywere not conceivedas such in the Vedic corpusitself.24)The new poetrydeor ployed figuresof speechwhich soon came to be knownas "ornaments," alamin the emergenceof a whole science of "poetics"aroundthe kdra, culminating in concept of "verbalornamentation," (alamkdrasdstra) the first few centuries C.E. In other words, the developmentof poetics as a science was co-extensive with the emergenceof a theory of "embellishment" "ornamentation" or (alamkara) which took as its problemthe elaborationof the rhetoricalfigures used in aesthetic composition. By the time of Bhamaha and Dandin, we find an already developed theory of the poetic compositionas a "body" (kdvyafarira) that is adornedwith poetic ornaments(alamkdcra). Poetics, and the theory of language it deployed, quite clearly operatedwithin the same logic of artifice that we find in the nagaraka'sdaily routine. These diverse manipulations external surface for the purposeof creating of denoted a whole mannerof comportment ancient India. To act in in pleasure the urbancourtwas in a sense to move throughits world of complex surfaces. This world of artificehad its own dense semioticity,and as a prescriptive treatise the Kdmasitra'schief aim was to providethe na-garaka with a "hermeneutics," as it were, of this world of signs. This is why Vatsyayanaincludes the of as interpretation signs or omens (nimittajiadnam) one of the knowledgesthat the nagarakashouldacquire(KS 1.3.16). Similarly,when Vatsyayanadiscusses the means by which a man should attracta maidento himself in orderto gain her as his wife, he requiresthat he have a properunderstanding the external of gestures(dkdra)and outwardsigns (iuigita) of the girl's desire(KS3.3.24). Elsewhere Vatsyayanasays that when the townsmandesires a woman he should examine throughtests (pariksetra)the manifestations her feelings (KS 5.3.1). of But for his own part,the nayakamust also be carefulto display particular gestures, for a woman conversely,accordingto Vatsyayana,will also seek to read the externalsigns of a man's desire. The actions of lovers thus become a careful movementthroughthe world of these externalsigns and gestures.

24) On the argument for the existence of "ornament"or alamkdra in Vedic hymns, see Diwekar 1930, pp. 23ff. As argued above, I follow Gonda on this point.

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I do not mean to imply here that these "external" signs were a reflectionof an inner entity called desire. Desire, we will recall, was a conditionarising in the mind (manas), one of the inner faculties, when the senses were stimulated. But the mind could be a rather troublesome entity, which, if not functioning properly,was capable of doing greatharmto the more interiorpartsof the self. The self's engagementwith the externalworld throughthe mind opened it up to the possibility of "over-attachment." Barringthe Lokayatas,nearly all of to the post-Vedicdisciplinaryordersregardedover-attachment the phenomenal world throughthe senses and their generalissimo,the mind, as an important dangerand obstacle towardproperworldly living, not to mentionsotierological striving.Such an eventualityresultedin the more interior(and morepermanent) partsof the self (most centrallythe soul or atman)becomingincreasingly dependent on externaldomains. The imagery most often used for this conditionwas or highly martializedand violent. The self was thoughtto be "enslaved" "conthe externalworld throughthe senses. The townsman,accordingto quered"by Vatsyayana,was to enjoy sensual pleasure while at the same time avoiding over-attachment. of Courtlydiscoursesconstruedthis conditionas a subjugation the self not to the externalworld, but to anotherperson. To wit, desiring another simply personleft one vulnerableto the possibilityof being subjectedto that person's will (valikaranam).Subjectionthroughsome form of sensual engagementis one of the most importantconcernsof Vatsyayana,who tells his variousprotagonists, in differentcontexts, how both to achieve and avoid such an eventuality. Such presumptionsallowed the play of lovers to be conceived of as battle in courtlyrepresentation. Lovers fought this battle throughthe manipulation of the manifold signs and surfaces of courtly existence. And the marshal who oversawandoftendecidedthisbattlein courtlyrepresentation Kamadeva, was the "god of love," who fired flowery arrowsat lovers from his sugarcanebow. The dangersof courtlypleasure,accordingto Vatsyayana,could be quite high. For it is here that "desire"splits off from "pleasure," giving courtlyerotics its telos. Once afflictedby desire, the townsmancould suffer greatly if particular his pleasurewas not consummated. Vatsyayanasays that kdmahas ten stages
(kdcmasyasthandni) each with its particular signs (lingdni) which could be

"read":pleasure with the eyes (caksupriti),attachmentof the mind (manasarigah), articulation of the mind (sarikalpah utpattih), loss of sleep (nidrdcchedah),

emaciation (tanutd), and even turning away from the objects of the senses followed by a loss of shame (lajjd pranacdah),madness (visayebhyovydvrttih),
(unmddah), fainting (miircchd), and eventually death (maranam) (KS 5.1.5).

These stages of "love suffering" would become increasingly important in

courtly representation as the stages that a lover went through when separated

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from his or her beloved. Knowing and reading these signs were crucial for townsmanprecisely because the interpretation fabrication surfacescould and of have the effect of transforming minds of others so profoundly. the Undernormalcircumstances townsmanwas to attractothersby the manithe pulation of the outer layers of his own self in orderthat he become desirable could be (subhaga). In the case of an initial attraction,desire and attachment increasedthrougha prescribedset of actions. Such actions required,however, the careful interpretation manipulation externalsigns. The interplaybeand of tween surface and depth, between action and intentionhere is far more complex than one of direct and simple expressivity.Goals must often be achieved througha play of indirection.Discerningand concealingthe internalcondition of the mind becomes one of the chief hermeneuticpracticesof courtly comportment.This is why Vatsyayanalists among the knowledges to be learned with his treatise the uses of deception (chalitakayogdh) and disguise (vastragopanam)(KS 1.3.16). It may be necessaryin certaincontextsfor a townsman to obtain his goals throughsuch methods.Vatsyayanarecommendsthese practices as especially useful in obtaining other men's wives. Vatsya-yana also advises the study of magic and conjuringfor the townsman(aindrajdlahkaucumardaca)(KS 1.3.16). It is in this context that we should understandthe spells, incantationsand potions included in the final book of the Kdmasutra. When all other strategies fail the townsman,Vatsyayanatells us, he advises him to make use of occult or special practices (aupanisadaka)to obtain his ends (KS 7.1.2). A lover can make himself attractiveand even gain the complete subjugationof others (valikaranam)throughthe use of particularsubstances (dravya).

The world that emergesfrom the Kamasittra one composedof agentswho is in the complex and dangeroustask of satisfyingtheir desires for acquiengage sition and pleasurewhile at the same time remainingsovereignover their own to persons-keeping themselves free from over-attachment the external world and, more importantly,independentand unsubjugatedwith respect to other courtlyactors.The assumedparityof ncdyakaand ndyiki presumesa closed and unfractured world of "ideal"courtlyactors negotiatingthe exigencies of power. This was possible throughthe diverse engagementwith and manipulationof phenomenalsigns, the technologyof which called for both a courtlyaesthetics a and a courtlyhermeneutics. Courtlyfashioningpresupposed sort of individualistic agonism-agents were pitted against one anotherin the pursuitof their from that of the Vedic desires. This agonism, however, differedfundamentally alimentaryorder; violent consumptiondid not form the chief power-relation
between agents, but rather subjection through desire and attachment. These are the new forms of political power which emerged in post-Vedic India-the

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vocabulary of sovereignty which would henceforth dominate the courts of kings-and which eventuallyled to the rise of kdvyaas a "publiclanguageof But the struggle politics," to use the felicitous phrase of Sheldon Pollock.25) of pleasures at the court remained vulnerable to "external critique" from anotherlocale, that of the monastery.26) The practicesI have been outliningbecame widespreadin the urbancourtsof Agokan and post-Atokan South Asia. They formed the ideologies of the increasingly urbanisedruling classes of the Mauryan,Satavdhanaand Ki.sina polities. Paralleling the growth of courts, however, we can also witness the sedentarizationof the peripatetic ascetic tradition of the Buddhist Bhikkusafighainto a disciplinaryorderwith regulatedcodes of conduct.The Buddhist vassa or rain-retreat was an opportunity monks to live congregationally, for a that was graduallyinstitutionalized a permanentbasis, as monks on practice settled in residencescalled avdsas and ardmas.27)By the time of Agoka, monasteries formed a crucial and important part of religious life in ancient India. The monastery,I would suggest, conceived of itself in direct oppositionto the court. If the court was an icon of the world, the monasterywas a refuge from it. This opposition,however, must be closely explored, since it was sustained throughfundamental linkages as well. The BuddhistVinaya, texts containingthe disciplinarycodes of the satigha, and composed slightly later than the earliest si~ttas,reveal a growing number of referencesto setthis or setthi-gahapatis,indicating a furtherintegrationof the ruling l1ites(gahapatis)of the barter-based ruraleconomy into larger and monetized exchange structurescentred in towns and cities.28)This partially
25) Pollock 1996. 26) In medieval India, however, the seamless world of ndyaka and ndyikd gradually becomes re-articulatedunder the hierarchical relation of svdmi and bhakta. See Ali forthcoming. 27) On the development of Buddhist monasteries, see Dutt 1962, pp. 53-100. 28) Uma Chakravartidistinguishes between the generalized use of the term gahapati in the Pdli canon and its specific use to indicate land-based l1ites,which she in turn distinguishes from the category of the setthi-gahapati, who drew his surplus from agriculturebut invested it in "business."(Chakravarti1996, pp. 73-79). I believe that this distinctionbetween rural land-based l1iteand urban-based l1iteis slightly overdrawn-the texts seem to indicate close linkages, both materially and ideologically between landed property-holders and those who involved themselves as usurers or investors with urban traders.Chakravartiherself presents evidence from the AriguttaraNikdya showing the easy transformation from gahapati to setthi-gahapati. The question of residence is also quite important,as many gahapatis and setthi-gahapatis may have domiciled in urban and semi-urban environments. The Vinaya texts show this increasing focus on urbancentres but even in the Kdmastitra,despite its later

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consolidation of the non-productive classes formed the urban ruling class in historical society. It is from these non-productive classes that not only early courtly practices, but monasticism as well, emerged. And like the world of kama, monastic and renunciatoryideologies were conceived of as explicitly non-productive.The non-producivityof courtly and monastic practices links themprofoundly-and distinguishes thembothfromthosewhoseproductive labour supportedthem. The relationwe shall explore below, however, is that between monk and courtieras elements of a single ruling class. The urban context of the monasticdisciplinarytexts of early Buddhismreveals the close social links of the urbanelite classes with the Buddhistsarigha. In fact, Buddhismmay have formed the dominantsoteriologicalcommitment of the courtly world we have so far been describing.How might we theorize this linkage? Scholarshave long known of the Buddhistleanings of the urban classes of early India. They at the same time have realized that these classes were the patronsand protagonistsof the emergingcourtly world. Clearly, we have two characterizations need of some articulation. in Nationalisthistorians, intent on creatinga "secular"or "humanist" culturefor ancient India, largely have tendedto ignore the close connectionof courtlypracticeand monasticdiscipline. More recentlyhistorianshave gone some way to revealingthe material links between these communities,but have often left the question of practice and ideology aside. It has been noticed, for example,that many of the most imat Jetavanarama portantearly Buddhistmonasticsites, the Jivakarama Rajagrha, near Sravasti and Ghositarama Kosambi, were donated by wealthy urban of dwellers-setthis, physicians, courtesansand kings. But these early monastic residences, known as dranmas,were located within cities or their suburbs,and most importantly,originally denoted "pleasure-grounds" arrangedas orchards or flower-gardens. The gardenwas thus not only the arcadiaof pleasurebut a place of monasticeffort. We might begin with a cursorycomparisonof the disciplinarypracticesof the Buddhistbhikkhuas recordedin the Pali Vinaya and the courtly pleasures
of the nagaraka in the Kdmasitra. Although the Kdmasatra must be placed at

a somewhatlater date than the earliestBuddhistdiscplinarytexts,29) it certainly drew on an already existing traditionof knowledge. And more importantly, both the Kcmastitra and the Buddhistdisciplinarytexts seem to presupposea
date, Vatsyayana recommends that wealthy householder (grhapati) should move to the city, indicating a continued fluidity, I would submit, between the life of the rural and urban 61ite. 29) The earliest Buddhist Vinaya texts are usually dated between the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.E., but as scholars have pointed out, there is little evidence to place any part of the Plli canon before the last quarterof the 1st century B.C.E. See von Hintiber 1978.

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ideology of pleasureand courthighly urbanised 61itesociety with its attendant The Moreover,their practicalprovenanceis complementary. Buddhist liness.30) for texts establishthe disciplinarycodes and procedures the community Vinaya in much the same way that the idstras seem to take up the of monks (sanigha) life of a twice-bornhouseholder.
The fifth khandhaka of the Pali Cullavagga (along with parts of the Mahd-

vagga), which concernsthe daily life of the communityof monks, providesan contrastto the daily routineand necessaryknowledgesof a sophisinteresting ticated townsman as briefly outlined by Vatsyayanain the third and fourth chaptersof the firstbook of the KcimasAtra. Strikingly,both monasticdiscipline and and courtlycomportment focus on similar areas of concern.Beautification of courtly life, form points of special concern in adornment,crucial aspects monasticdiscipline. Bathing, for example, was one of the first daily concerns of the ndgaraka.Shampooing(sarihvahana) formedpartof one of the sixty-four to be learned by the townsman. We can assume that auxiliary knowledges bathersused a varietyof techniquesand instruments. Buddhistdisciplinary The texts confirmthis assumption According throughtheirdisciplinaryinterdictions. to the Cullavaggathe monkwas allowed a minimumof instruments his bath. for He could not bathe with stands (attdna),hand-shaped applicators(gandhabbahatthaka), bead applicators (kuruvindaka-sutti), back-scrubbers (mallaka) or othermonkswho might performsuch functionsfor him manually(CV 5.1.3).31)

a Accordingto Vatsya-yana, townsmanshould anoint his body with unguents andoils (anulepana, utsddana)(KS 1.3.16; 1.4.16).The monk,however,is explicitly forbiddento apply paste, powderor paintto his limbs and face (CV 5.2.5). The townsmanshould apply sweet smelling perfumes(gandhayukti) and ointments (dhapam)to his body (KS 1.3.16; 1.4.16), while the monk, by contrast, could use perfumesonly for medicinal purposesaccordingto the Mahdvagga cleansandcombshis hair(kelamardana) 1.3.16). (MV6.11.1-2).Thetownsman (KS The monk, on the otherhand, was not permitted style his hair with a comb, to smoothit in any way, nor treatit with oils, beeswax or pomade(CV 5.2.3). In fact, he was to have it cut within an inch of his head. If the townsmanoften
30) This common social context has been noticed in the work of some scholars attempting to sketch the social backgroundof the Vinaya texts. See Misra 1972, pp. 196-7. 31) The last prescriptionis particularlyinteresting. The chapter begins by noting that the monks of the Chabbaggiyamonastery bathed like wrestlers, boxers and shampooers, which drew the censure of the people. The Buddha advises the monks to avoid using certain instruments in bathing, but also, crucially, not to rub each other down. Such an admonishment brings to mind the sexual practices-particularly oral sex-said to occur between men (or more precisely, between men and "eunuchs" [trtiya prakrtih]) in the Kdmasatra, which, accordingto the Vatsyayana,most often take place when a bathing townsman is approached by someone claiming to be shampooer (sarvdhaka) (KS 2.9.5).

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possessed an extensive knowledge of garments,ear-rings,jewelry, and headgear (KS 1.3.16), the monk, in turn,was expectedto abstainfrom wearinganything but the simplest of clothing. He was prohibitedfrom wearing ear-rings, discloses a necklaces, bangles, braceletsand rings (CV 5.2.1). The Kadmasutra of methodsby which a townsmanor courtesanmight, accordingto pasvariety sion and taste, trim, paint and maintaintheir finger-nails, because nail-marking formed an importantpart of love-play. Vatsyayanaelabo(nakhavilekhanam) rates eight differentshapes of nail-marks,all of which are conceived of as extremely exciting when sighted from afar or duringthe subsequentmeeting of lovers (KS 2.4.4). As if responding to Vatsyayana, the Cullavagga forbids monks to have long or painted finger-nailsprecisely because of their erotic The connotation.32) townsmancompleteshis adornment looking in a mirror by but the monk is forbiddento study his face in a mirroror even a (KS 1.4.16), bowl of water, except in the event of disease or sickness (CV 5.2.4). If the courtier's body was distinctive through its adornment,the monk's was conspicuous by its plainness,simplicity,and "unattractiveness."33) Beyond his person, the monk was prohibitedfrom possessing beautifuland decoratedobjects. Accordingto the disciplinarytexts the various equipmentof the monk--his robes, shoes, needle-boxes,medicine-vials,under-garments, begging bowls, and seats34)-were not to be made of precioussubstancesor ornamented in any way. The examination of jewels formed a past-timeof the townsman(KS 1.3.16); for the (rtipyaratnapariks.a) up a monk, simply picking jewel from the groundwas a serious offense (PM 84-5). Beds, couches, seats, and ornamentedcushions decorated the outer apartmentsof a townsman's formed an importantskill (Sayanaracanam) house, and their arrangment (KS 1.3.16). Such concernswere forbiddento the communityof monks. They were not to possess large cushions,divans, woolen or decoratedcoverlets,mattresses, rugs with long hair, carpetsinlaid with gold or silk, large woolen carpetsused by dancing girls, antelope skins, or couches covered with canopies or with crimson cushions at both ends.35) Nor were monks permittedto sleep on beds with flowers (CV 5.18.1). arranged
32) The story revolves around a monk with long finger-nails, who, when seen by a woman of the town was immediately propositioned by her. Rebuked by the monk, she replied that if he did not accept her offer, she would scratch herself and claim that he had done it: CV 5.27.1-2. 33) The purpose of courtly ornament,we should remember,was to attract others for the satisfaction of one's pleasures and the realization of one's plans. 34) For shoes, see MV 5.2.1-4; 5.8.1-3. For needle-boxes, see PM 86. For medicine-vials, see MV 6.12.1. For undergarments,see CV 5.29.2. For begging bowls, see CV 5.9.1. For seats, see CV 5.19.1. 35) An abbreviationof a longer list: MV 5.10.3-4.

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These rules are usually couched in a narrativeframes in which the Buddha makes a disciplinary pronouncement following the misconduct of particular monks. The most commonscenariois one in which, because of particular practices, a group of monks have received censureamong the people as behaving "like householderswho enjoy the pleasures of the senses," (seyyathdpigihi kamabhogino).The householderhere is considered to be the "enjoyer"par excellence, and certainlydesignateda class of wealthy urbanel1ite. Particularly illustrativeof the oppositionbetweenhouseholder monkis the Cullavagga's and narrativeillustratingthe formal act of Banishment(pabbdjaniyakammam) from the order. The case involved the followers of Assaji and Punabbasuat the Kitagiri monasterynear Kasi. These monks, according to reports, grew and cared for small flowering trees. With the flowers from these trees they fashioned garlands,wreaths, ear ornaments,and breast plates which they sent as to and blandishments the wives, daughters,maidens,daughter-in-laws, female slaves of respectablefamilies. Takingintoxicants, wearinggarlands,and applyand cosmetics,they sat and reclinedwith these women. They ate, ing perfumes and drank,danced and sang together,played musical instruments sportedwith one another. They also played various board-games, dice games, stepping games, ball games and hand games. They played with toy-carts,toy-windmills, toy-ploughs, toy-carts and toy-bows. The monks learned elephantlore, horse and lore, and carriagelore. They played guessing games, mind-reading, various contests of mimicry.They turnedsomersaults, whistled, wrestled,boxed, practiced archeryand swordsmanship, raced in front of elephantsand chariots and and (CV 1.13.1-2). This resum6of "depraved unscrupulous" activities,many of which come in for specific censure and prohibitionin later passages of the Cullavagga,is nothingbut a collection of the ndgaraka's past-times.The diversions these monks, from gardeningto dancing,mimicryto swordsmanship, are the very sort of activitieswhich Vatsyayanaenjoins the nagarakato masterin order to be fully accomplishedin the science of pleasure(kaimasitra).36)And the seduction of "other men's women," through various blandishmentsand charms,is perhapsone of the more distinctiveskills which Vatsyayana imparts to his courtier.But we shouldnote that the practicewhich initiatesthe monks' descent into debaucheryis the cultivationof flowers and their fashioninginto garlands,ear-rings,and breast-plates-the fabricationof ornament. The banishmentof the Kiptgirimonks from the orderonly underscoresthe constant counterpointwhich the court played in Buddhist monastic practice. The court, then, formed an important icon of critiquefor Buddhistdiscourses.
36) Many of them are identically matched to one or other of the sixty-four auxiliary skills of the science of pleasure as listed in KS 1.3.16.

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We find numerousreferencesto courtly pleasuresas snares to the properlife and conductof the Buddhistmonk. Nagasamalaof the Theragatha,for example, bemoans
Ornamented,well-dressed, wearing a garland, anointed with sandal, in the middle of the main-road a dancing girl dances to music. I entered for alms. As I was going along I saw her ornamented,well-dressed, like a snare of death spread out.37)

Examples like this proliferate.The Buddha biographieswhich proliferatedin India contain elaboratedescriptionsof the young prince Gotama post-ASokan despondentin the pleasuregroves and chambersof his father'spalace. The trajectory of the Buddhahimself was emblematic-from the pleasuresof the royal court to the life of a wanderingmendicant.It would not be too much, I think, to say that the daily routineof the Buddhistmonk formeda completeinversion of the courtier'slife of pleasure. But as I have indicated,this oppositionis more complicatedthan it might to between seem, and unlike the Buddhistrelationship sacrifice,the antagonism and court contains a numberof subtle complications.Buddhistdocmonastery trine and practice seems to have been in close dialogue with the world of artifice and ornamentcurrent at urban courts.Buddhistdoctrinewas increasjewel reingly organizedthroughfloraland lapidarymetaphors-gem pathways, doctrinaltreasuriesand flower scriptures. The stipa cult, which Gregory fuges, Schopen has shown formed an integral part of Buddhist monastic practice from its inception,38) involved a numberof elements that operatedwithin the frameworkof ornamentand artifice. These practiceswere understoodas acts of reverenceor worship(puja) of the living corporealexistence of the Buddha in the form of his relics, and later, of images. A reliquarycasket, one of the first post-Atokaninscriptionswe possess, containeda relic (?arira) "endowed with life" (prdnasametam).39) Stfpas were enclosed by railings, gateways, and pillars,encased by plaquesand medallions-all of which were inscribedas the "gifts"of pious monks and lay people. These gifts, which appearin great numor bers from about 150 B.C.E., were conceived as "embellishments" "ornaments" to the relic entombed in the stu-pa. As Xinru Liu has reminded us, in

ancientIndia stipas were not the dilapidatedand bare stone remainsthat they are today.40) They were elaborately ornamentedstructures,encased not only with stone railings,pillars and plaquesbut decoratedwith gold, beads made of
37) 38) 39) 40) Theragathd,267-8: trans. Norman 1997, p. 35. Schopen 1997, pp. 30-36. See also other articles in this volume. Majumdar1937-8, p. 7. Liu 1988, p. 84.

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various precious stones, and silk banners.Textually, the evidence is equally LalitaMahdvastu, strong.Numeroustexts, includingthe Mahdparinibbdnasuttta, make to vistara,andSaddharmapundarika reference the honoringof the Buddha's of remainsby the construction stupas constructed with or decorated precious by in silk canopies,or strewnwith flowers.Worshipof Buddhaand stones, encased Bodhisattvaimages includedthe applicationof ointmentsand powders,decorationwith garlands,clothes,jewelry and canopies.41)Liu is certainlycorrectto notice the parallel between the daily necessities of the Buddhist images and those of the Kdmasitra'scourtier.42) These developments might be told as part of the history of worship (ptija) or as part of the history of Buddhistpractice in ancient India, but my point here is slightly different.They also indicatethe highly complicitrelationthat Buddhistpracticehad with the urbanand courtly fashioning. Such a precarious flirtation with the worldof artificeandornamentation raises
some important ontological issues about the relations of monastic and courtly

comportment.Buddhist discourses, like many contemporary soteriologies,revolved around the problem of worldly suffering and liberation-a discursive problem that emerged historically in India in tandem with the "worldly" goals

of acquisitionand pleasure and moral regulation.Like other movements,the Buddhistsheld that sufferingarose from false conceptions,but more particufosteredby and fosteringthe idea of a larly from the graspingfor permanence permanent and unchanging self as transcendent subject.43) The self was simply a bundle of conditionedand contingentstrands.Similarly,the world beyond it was composedof momentary transient and "elements" "existents" or (dharmas) The cosmos appeared,however, to constantlycoming togetherand separating.
be composed of permanent and enduring objects. This distance between the ap-

pearance of "common-sensethings" and the reality of dharmas formed the for science which was in turnconnectedto a point of departure a hermeneutic of disciplinarymethodfor the attainment enlightenment. The monasticadeptswho composedthe treatiseson the "studyof the teaching" (Abhidharma) sought to deconstruct phenomenal reality through a rigorous

and uncompromising elements descriptionand analysis of its most fundamental controversiesthat raged in (dharmas).And, I would suggest, the Abhidharma
post-A"okan India have a more than coincidental relation with the "scientific"

theorization courtlyaestheticsaroundartificeand ornament. of Indeed,Buddhist Abhidharma and courtly aesthetics seem to have shared a common language.
41) Liu 1988, p. 97. 42) Liu 1988, p. 97. the role 43) Not surprisingly, mindplayedan important in this wrongperception.

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Both practices operatedwithin a hermeneuticsthat presupposedthe external world to be composed of entities distinguishedby their marks (laksana) and signs (nimitta).For the monks, the concept of changingreality was understood as conditioned by three "marks"-impermanence,non-inherenceand sufferof ing. Further,marks formed the defining characteristics elemental existents and events that were at the same time identicalwith those elements.")The task of analysis was to break down phenomenal reality into these fundamental thrustof Budelements througha hermeneutics marks.The "deconstructive" of for dhist philosophywas thus concernednot so muchwith theorizingliberation, but and nirvdnawas unconditioned thus had no interpretable signs (animitta)45) instead in analyzing the conditionedworld with its marksand signs. Buddhistontology, as a numberof scholarshave pointedout, was not a disembodiedphilosophicaldiscourse,but only gained its meaningwithin the context of meditationaland disciplinarypractices.That is, the ontological claim that the world was composed of conditionedand impermanent entities, flowed from and was part of certain analyticalpracticesintegral to Buddhist directly meditation.The world of appearances, before brokeninto its elementalcomponents by the discernmentof meditationalpractice,was conceived of as multiplicity of "signs"(nimitta)-a term conspicuousin the formulaedescribingthe restraintof the senses, as Conze has pointedout.46) The restraintof the senses was conceived of as guarding one's mind from seizing upon the "signs" To text.47) (nimittagahi)of the external world, according to one Abhidharma "seize upon" a sign was to let the sign dominateone's mind to the exclusion of everythingelse in a process that began with attentionto the sign, recognition of the sign and finally entrancement with the sign. Controlof the senses was precisely rejectingthe mind's interestin sense perception,in the engagehas ment with signs. This was achieved, as Paul Griffiths pointedout, not only by enstatic methods of disciplining the senses against enslavement to signs throughcessation of sensual and mental activities, but also throughthe "positive appropriation" doctrine-particularly the Abhidharmaanalysis of the of of common-sensereality into their "real"constituents.48) signs The picture that emerges here is a world conceived of as an ever-changing which could be brocomplex of deceptive and dangeroussignifying "surfaces" and dispersalsof eleken down into transientand momentaryconcatenations
44) 45) 46) 47) 48) Conze 1967, p. 96. Conze 1967, pp. 61-4. Conze 1967, p. 62. Dhammasangani, vv. 1345-1347. Griffiths 1986.

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mentalmarks.This world foundits counterpoint the artificeof early aesthetic in and courtlytraditions. That is, the Buddhistconcernwith the conditionedexistence presupposed and to a certain extent was ideologically linked to and dependentupon the practicesthat centeredaroundartifice.The readingof exterior signs (nimitta and akdra), we will recall, was a crucial skill for Vatsyawas to understand the appropriate yana's townsman. The successful ndagaraka of love and characteristics of attraction in order to satisfy his needs in signs courtly society. Just as the monk was to disengage with the signs of phenomenal reality through withdrawal and analysis, the courtier, was to engage with

and manipulatethese signs to make his way at court. The practicesof adornment and artificeunderstood surpleasureas the engagementwith manipulated faces. The earliest theoriesof poetic compositionbegan by definingpoetry as a collection of marks or characteristics (laksana), a category that formed the basis for poetic embellishment (alarhkcra).49)So one thing that both Buddhist and courtly practicesshare was immediateconcern over a changingworld of conceivedof as signs or marks,and the interpretation which was of "surfaces," or integralfor propercomportment conduct.To be sure, these practicesimplied one another.The Kdmasutra's anxietyaroundover-attachment parallelsthe Buddhist aesthetization devotionto the Buddha'sremains-indicating a profound of imbrication these practices.Now we can see the articulatory of relationbetween courtly and monastic technologies.The monasterymade great use of courtly artificeat the same time that it relegatedit to the world of flux and suffering. The court reflectedthe concernfor over-attachment its constantadmonition in regardingthe dangersof subjectionand weakness. I am not arguinghere that these discourses formed a seamless complementarity. Courtly fashioning and monasticdisciplinewere neitherunrelatedin practicenor did they form a perfect whole. There is a certainunresolvedantagonismin both early Buddhism and the courtlytraditionsbetween the enjoymentof pleasureas artificeand its a with the appropriation problematization, relationthat would be re-articulated of Buddhistand courtly practicesby ?aiva and Vaisnava ordersin early medieval India. I have here only tried to suggest the common groundof such an antagonism,in order to illuminatethe ways in which Buddhismwas situated, throughcomplementary opposition,in the urban societies of ancient India. It offeredan embracingcritiqueof this world at the same timeit depended uponit. Buddhismspoke directlyto the courtly societiesof earlyIndia-and this articulation, would explain, as it were, its currencyin such a world.

49) See De 1925, vol. 2, pp. 4-6.

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The distinction between courtly and monastic technologies, however, was where Vatsyayanapresumesa stable, acquisitive,enjoying, and fundamental; subjugatingself, Buddhistteachingproposeda concatenationof ever-changing strandsand layers nested aroundan illusion of self, anatta. Beyond this disfor tinction,and its implications practice,monasticand courtlypracticecan usenotions fully be seen as inversetechnologiesof the self, ones that sharedsimilar of self/not-self and externalphenomena.In this essay, I have attempted exto the similaragentivedispositionof monasticand courtlypracticestowards plore these externalphenomena.A more complete analysis of the self as a problem among the ruling classes of early historicIndia still remainsto be written.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbreviations CV KS MV PM RV ?B Cullavagga Kdmasuitra Mahdvagga Pdtimokkha Rg Veda Satapatha Brdhmana

I. Primary Sources: Texts and Translations SatapathaBrahmana: ?atapatha Brdhmana. Vols. 12, 26, 41, 43 and 44, 5 parts of Sacred Books of the East. Translatedby Julius Eggeling (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1978). Satapatha Brdhmanam.Edited by Albrecht Weber (Varanasi: Chowkambha Sanskrit Series Office, 1964). Dhamma-Sangani: A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics. Translated by C.A.F. Rhys Davids (London: Pall Text Society, 1993). Kamastitra: The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.Translatedby Sir RichardBurton and F.F. Arbuthnot.Edited by W.G. Archer (London: Unwin, 1981). Kdmasutram. Edited by Goswami Damodar Shastri (Benares: Jaikrishnadas and Haridas Gupta, 1929). Lalitavistara: Lalitavistara: The Lalita-Vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of Sckya-Sifiha.Translatedby RajendralalMitra (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1882). Theragatha: Poems of the Early BuddhistMonks. Translatedby K.R. Norman (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1997). Vinaya Pitaka Vinaya Texts. Vols. 13, 17 and 20, 3 parts of Sacred Books of the East. Translatedby Rhys Davids, T.W., and Hermann Oldenberg (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965). Vinaya Pitakam. Ed. Hermann Oldenberg. 5 vols. (London: Williams and Norgate, 18791883).

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"From Nayika to Bhakta: A Genealogy of Female Subjectivity in Early Medieval India." In Julia Leslie (ed.), Empowerment:Gender Constructs in Indian Religion and Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Chakladar,H.C. 1954 Social Life in Ancient India: A Study in Vatsyayana'sKamasutra (Calcutta: Susil Gupta). Chakravarti,Uma 1996 Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism (Delhi: MunshiramManoharlal). Conze, Edward 1967 Buddhist Thought in India: Three Phases of BuddhistPhilosophy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press). De, Sushil Kumar 1925 Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics 2 vols. (London: Luzac and Co.). 1969 Ancient Indian Erotics and Erotic Literature (Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay). Diwekar, H.R. 1930 Les Fleurs de rhitorique dans l'Inde: etude sur l'evolution des "alarikdra" ou ornementsstylistiques dans la litteraturesanskrite (Paris: Libraired'Amdrique et d'Orient). Dutt, Sukumar 1962 Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Their Contribution to Indian Culture (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.). Fiser, Ivo 1967 Indian Erotics of the Oldest Period (New Delhi: GauravPublications). Foucault, Michel 1988 "Technologies of the Self." In LutherMartin,et al. (eds.), Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault (Amherst:University of Massachusetts Press), pp. 16-49. Gonda, Jan 1975a "The Meaning of the Word Alamkara." In Jan Gonda, Selected Studies, volume 2 Sanskrit Word Studies (Leiden: E.J. Brill), pp. 257-274. 1975b "Abhharana." In Jan Gonda, Selected Studies, volume 2 Sanskrit Word Studies (Leiden: E.J. Brill), pp. 171-177. Griffiths,Paul 1986 On Being Mindless: BuddhistMeditationand the Mind-BodyProblem(Lasalle, IL: Open Court). von Hiniiber, Oskar 1978 "On the Traditionof Pdli Texts in India, Ceylon and Burma."In Heinz Bechert (ed.), Buddhism in Ceylon and Studies on Religious Syncretism (G6ttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht), pp. 48-57. Lienhard, Siegfried 1984 A History of Classical Poetry: Sanskrit-Pali-Prakrit (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz). Liu, Xinru 1988 Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges AD 1-600 (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Majumdar,N.G. 1937-8 "The Bajaur Casket of the Reign of Menander."Epigraphia Indica 24: 1-8.

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