Courtesan's Keeper

This feast of smiles was put together giving the secret strategies and all the tricks of courtesans. One of Kshemendra's finest satires, The Courtesan's Keeper is a delightful and rambunctious rendition of the life and times of the courtesan Kankali as she teaches the ways of the world to her ward Kalavati. From the attractive courtesan and her shrewd keeper, to the experienced barber and the avaricious trader, the book brings to life the vibrant society of Kashmir Valley a thousand years ago through a host of characters, each drawn in vivid detail. With its terse narrative, directness and economy of style and fast-paced action, the book is fully suited for the 21st century reader.

Kshemendra lived in Kashmir circa 990-1070 ce. His literary output over at least three decades includes still-studied works on poetics and prosody, apart from devotional and didactic verse, mordant social satire and a lost history of the kings of Kashmir. Eighteen of these works were recovered in the past century, and sixteen are known through citations. They have established Kshemendra as a prolific and multifaceted writer on a wide variety of subjects and an important name in classical Sanskrit literature.Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar is a well-known translator of Sanskrit classics. Educated at the universities of Allahabad and Oxford, he was for many years a career diplomat, serving as the Indian high commissioner in Kenya and the Seychelles, minister in the United States and ambassador in Portugal and Yugoslavia. His translations from the Sanskrit include The Shattered Thigh and Other Plays, Tales of the Ten Princes, Hitopadesa, Simhasana Dvatrimsika, Subhashitavali, Kama Sutra, and Three Satires from Ancient Kashmir, all published as Penguin Classics. He has also compiled A Treasury of Sanskrit Poetry which was recently translated into Arabic and published in the United Arab Emirates as Khazana al-Shair al-Sanskriti.