ABSTRACT
Courtesans have long been a staple of South Asian myth, literature, drama, and ritual life. Plays featuring courtesans were frequently per formed during spring fertility festivals to help promote the fruitful ness of humans, animals, and crops.1 In keeping with this connection between courtesans and fecundity, there are many tales in which a king can only end a drought by sending a courtesan to seduce a celi bate sage. This theme was enacted in an annual ritual by devadÅs≠s, the sacred courtesans at the temple of JagannÅtha in Puri in order to has ten the monsoon rains.2 The connections between semen and rain have a long history in the ancient world, and both are also connected to fecundity and thus to power. By withholding his semen a sage can blight the land, unless the king has a greater command over the pow ers of fertility, or unless he can command the auspicious powers of a beautiful and fertile woman. In similar scenarios the god Indra sends heavenly courtesans (ap±aras) to seduce celibate sages whose spiritual power threatens his own.3