_Other Social Diversions._ Spending nights playing with dice. Going out on moonlight nights. Keeping the festive day in honour of spring. Plucking the sprouts and fruits of the mangoe trees. Eating the fibres of lotuses. Eating the tender ears of corn. Picnicing in the forests when the trees get their new foliage. The Udakakashvedika or sporting in the water. Decorating each other with the flowers of some trees. Pelting each other with the flowers of the Kadamba tree, and many other sports which may either be known to the whole country, or may be peculiar to particular parts of it. These and similar other amusements should always be carried on by citizens.
The above amusements should be followed by a person who diverts himself alone in company with a courtesan, as well as by a courtesan who can do the same in company with her maid servants or with citizens.
A Pithamarda[26] is a man without wealth, alone in the world, whose only property consists of his Mallika,[27] some lathering, substance and a red cloth, who comes from a good country, and who is skilled in all the arts; and by teaching these arts is received in the company of citizens, and in the abode of public women.
A Vita[28] is a man who has enjoyed the pleasures of fortune, who is a compatriot of the citizens with whom he associates, who is possessed of the qualities of a householder, who has his wife with him, and who is honoured in the assembly of citizens, and in the abodes of public women, and lives on their means and on them.
A Vidushaka[29] (also called a Vaihasaka, _i.e._, one who provokes laughter) is a person only acquainted with some of the arts who is a jester, and who is trusted by all.
These persons are employed in matters of quarrels and reconciliations between citizens and public women.
This remark applies also to female beggars, to women with their heads shaved, to adulterous women, and to old public women skilled in all the various arts.
Thus a citizen living in his town or village, respected by all, should call on the persons of his own caste who may be worth knowing. He should converse in company and gratify his friends by his society, and obliging others by his assistance in various matters, he should cause them to assist one another in the same way.
There are some verses on this subject as follows:-
A citizen discoursing, not entirely in the Sanscrit language,[30] nor wholly in the dialects of the country, on various topics in society, obtains great respect. The wise should not resort to a society disliked by the public, governed by no rules, and intent on the destruction of others. But a learned man living in a society which acts according to the wishes of the people, and which has pleasure for its only object is highly respected in this world.