Both music and dancing, like others of the arts, probably originated
as part of a religious or magical service or ritual, and hence would
come to be practised by the women attached to temples. And it would
soon be realised what potent attractions these arts possessed when
displayed by women, and in course of time they would be valued as
accomplishments in themselves, and either acquired independently by
other courtesans or divorced from a sole application to religious
ritual. In this manner music, singing and dancing may have grown to
be considered as the regular attractions of the courtesan and hence
immoral in themselves, and not suitable for display by respectable
women. The Emperor Shah Jahan is said to have delighted in the
performances of the Tawaif or Muhammadan singing and dancing girls,
who at that time lived in bands and occupied mansions as large as
palaces. [397] Aurangzeb ordered them all to be married or banished
from his dominions, but they did not submit without a protest; and
one morning as the Emperor was going to the mosque he saw a vast crowd
of mourners marching in file behind a bier, and filling the air with
screams and lamentations. He asked what it meant, and was told that
they were going to bury Music; their mother had been executed, and
they were weeping over her loss. 'Bury her deep,' the Emperor cried,
'she must never rise again.'