Bhagavadajjuka / ascetic–courtesan body-swap farce
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 79). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: By / around 7th century CE
Region: India
Workbook date-sort bounds: 600 CE to 699 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
An ascetic's consciousness enters a courtesan's body, upsetting expected speech, behavior and authority: a premodern comic body-swap setup.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
A body-swap farce survives in manuscript and performance traditions.
What remains uncertain
Textual/theatrical continuation is not proof that the particular trope became a grassroots cultural moment; audience and period-specific appropriation evidence is missing.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria