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Part 1 |
The following are the things to be done occasionally as diversions or amusements:
• Holding festivals11 in honour of different Deities
• Social gatherings of both sexes
• Drinking parties
• Picnics
• Other social diversions
Festivals
On some particular auspicious day, an assembly of citizens should be convened in the temple of
Saraswati.12 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,13 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.
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