The rise and fall of courtesans

The rise and fall of courtesans

With the coming of the British, bringing women to sell in Lahore was banned and all women living outside the wedlock as courtesans and keeps were asked to leave the city. Many then decided to marry their masters. A new feudal arrangement came about, the remnants of which exist even today. The courtesan culture of Lahore, like that of Lucknow, was ended by the strict Victorian values that the British brought with them. It is interesting that when empires, or cultures, are on the rise, with them also come beautiful women — women who live off their wits, not their beauty alone.