Among all the classical works on erotica, Vatsyayana's Kamasutra is easily the most important and the best known. Vatsyayana, an heir to a rich legacy, scientifically and meticulously incorporated the various schools of thought on the subject in his Kamasutra. The result is a detailed treatise covering the entire spectrum of love-making: the classification of males and females according to their passion and build, the various possibilities in love-play and sexual union for greater joy and satisfaction, the instruments of love-making, the psychology of sex and the role of a wife and courtesan. At a broader level, Vatsyayana also paints a vivid picture of the social manners and customs of his times.

"Vatsyayana, one of the greatest authorities…"-
Havelock Ellis, Sex in Relation to Society.

"Kamasutra… is the most famous in a long list of works revealing a certain pre-occupation with the physical and mental techniques of sex…."-
Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage
"One of the world's great books."-
The Guardian, U.K.

PREFACE

In the literature of all countries there will be found a certain number of works treating especially of love. Everywhere the subject is dealt with differently, and from various point of view. In the present publication it is proposed to give a complete translation of what is considered the standard work on love in Sanskrit literature, and which is called the 'Vatsyayana Kama Sutra' or Aphorisms on Love, by Vatsyayana.

While the introduction will deal with the evidence concerning the date of the writing, and the commentaries written upon it, the chapters following the introduction will give a translation of the work itself. It is however, advisable to furnish here a brief analysis of works of the same nature, prepared by authors who lived and wrote years after Vatsya had passed away, but who still considered him as the great to Hindoo erotic literature.

Besides the treatise of Vatsyayana the following works on the same subject are procurable in India:

1.The Ratirahasya, or secrets of love.
2.The Paanchasakya, or the five arrows.
3. The Smara Pradipa, or the light of love.
4. The Ratimanjari, or the garland of love.
5. The Rasmanjari, or the sprout of love.
6. The Anunga Runga, or the stage of love; also called Kamaledhiplava, or a boat in the ocean of love.

The author of the 'Secrets of Love' was a poet named Kukkoka. He composed his work to please one Venudutta, who was perhaps a king. When writing his own name at the end of each chapter he calls himself "Siddha patiya pandita," i.e., an ingenious man among learned men. The work was translated into Hindi years ago, and in this the author's name was written as Koka. And as the same name crept into all the translations into other languages in India, the book became generally known, and the subject was popularly called Koka Shastra, or doctrines of Koka, which is identical with the Kama Shastra, or doctrines of love, and the words Koka Shastra and Kama Shastra are used indiscriminately.

The work contains nearly eight hundred verses, and is divided into ten chapters, which are called Pachivedas. Some of the things treated of in this work are not to be found in the Vatsyayana, such as the four classes of women, viz., the Padmini, Chitrini, Shankhini and Hastini, as also the enumeration of the days and hours on which the women of the different classes become subject to love. The author adds that he wrote these things from the opinions of Gonikaputra and Nandikeshwara, both of whom are mentioned by Vatsyayana, but their works are not now extant. It is difficult to give any approximate idea as to the year in which the work was composed. It is only to be presumed that it was written after that of Vatsyayana, and previous to the other works on this subject that are still extant. Vatsyayana gives the names of ten authors on the subject, all of whose works he had consulted, but none of which are extant, and does not mention this one. This would tend to show that Kukkoka wrote after Vatsya, otherwise Vatsya would assuredly have mentioned him as an author in this branch of literature along with the others.

The author of the 'Five Arrows' was one Jyotirisha. He is called the chief ornament of poets, the treasure of the sixty-four arts, and the best teacher of the rules of music. He says that he composed the work after reflecting on the aphorisms of love as revealed by the gods, and studying the opinions of Gonikaputra, Muladeva, Babhravya, Ramtideva, Nundikeshwara and Kshemandra. It is impossible to say whether he had purused all the works of these authors, or had only heard about them; anyhow, none of them appears to be in existence now. This work contains nearly six hundred verses and is divided into five chapter, called Sayakas or Arrows.

The author of the 'Light of Love' was the poet Gunakara, the son of Vechapati. The work contains four hundred verses, and gives only a short account of the doctrines of love, dealing more with other matters.

'The Garland of Love' is the work of the famous poet Jayadeva who said about himself that he is a writer on all subjects. This treatise is, however, very short, containing only one hundred and twenty-five verses.

The author of the 'Sprout of Love' was a poet called Bhanudatta. It appears from the last verse of the manuscript that he was a resident of the province of Tirhoot, and son of a Brahman named Ganeshwar, who was also a poet. The work, written in Sanskrit, gives the descriptions of different classes of men and women, their classes being made out from their age, description, conduct, etc. It contains three chapters and its date is not known and cannot be ascertained.

'The Stage of Love' was composed by the poet Kullianmull, for the amusement of Ladkhan, the son of Ahmed Lodi, the same Ladkhan being in some places spoken of as Ladana Mull, and in others as Ladanaballa. He is supposed to have been a relation or connection of the house of Lodi, which reigned in Hindustan from A.D. 1450-1526. The work would, therefore, have been written in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It contains ten chapters, and has been translated into English but only six copies were printed for private circulation. This is supposed to be the latest of the Sanskrit works on the subject, and the ideas in it were evidently taken from previous writings of the same nature.

The contents of these works are in themselves a literary curiosity. There are to be found both in Sanskrit poetry and in the Sanskrit drama a certain amount of poetical sentiment and romance, which have, in every country and in every language, thrown an immortal halo round the subject. But here it is treated in a plain, simple, matter of fact sort of way. Men and women are divided into classes and divisions in the same way that Buffon and other writers on natural history have classified and divided the animal world. As Venus was represented by the Greeks to stand forth as the type of the beauty of woman, so the Hindus describe the Padmini or Lotus woman as the type of most perfect feminine excellence, as follows:

She in whom the following signs and symptoms appear is called a Padmini. Her face is pleasing as the full moon; her body, well clothed with flesh, is soft as the Shiras or mustard flower, her skin is fine, tender and fair as the yellow lotus, never dark colored. Her eyes are bright and beautiful as the orbs of the fawn, well cut, and with reddish corners. Her bosom is hard, full and high; she has a good neck; her nose is straight and lovely and three folds or wrinkles cross her middle-about the umbilical region. Her yoni resembles the opening lotus bud, and her love seed (Kama salila) is perfumed like the lily that has newly burst. She walks with swan-like gait, and her in rich dresses. She eats little, sleeps lightly, and being as respectful and religious as she is clever and courteous, she is never anxious to worship the gods, and to enjoy the conversation of Brahmans. Such, then is the Padmini or Lotus woman.

Detailed descriptions then follow of the Chitrini or Art woman; the Shankhini or Conch woman, and the Hastini or Elephant woman, their days of enjoyment their various seats of passion the manner in which they should be manipulated and treated in sexual intercourse, along with the characteristics of the men and women of the various countries in Hindustan. The details are so numerous and the subjects so seriously dealt with and at such length that neither time nor space will permit of their being given here.

One work in the English language is somewhat similar to these works of the Hindus. It is called 'Kalogynomia: or the laws of Female Beauty,' being the elementary principles of that science, by T. Bell, M.D., with twenty-four plates, and printed in London in 1821. It treats of Beauty, of Love, of Sexual Intercourse, of the Laws regulating that Intercourse, of Monogamy and Polygamy, of Prostitution, of Infidelity, ending with a catalogue raisonnee of the defects of female beauty.

Other works in English also enter into great details of private and domestic life: The Elements of Social Science, or Physical, Sexual and Natural Religion, by a Doctor or Medicine, London, 1880 and Every Woman's Book, by Dr. Waters, 1826. To persons interested in the above subject these works will be found to contain such details as have been seldom before published, and which ought to be thoroughly understood by all philanthropists and benefactors of society.

After a perusal of the Hindu work, and of the English books above mentioned the reader will understand the subject, at all events from a materialistic, realistic and practical point of view. If all science is founded more or less on a stratum of facts, there can be no harm in making known to mankind generally certain matters intimately connected with their private, domestic and social life.

Alas! Complete ignorance of them has unfortunately wrecked many a man and many a woman, while a little knowledge of a subject generally ignored by the masses would have enabled numbers of people to understand many things which they believed to be quite incomprehensible or which were not thought worthy of their consideration.

	Part I Introductory Preface
I.	Salutation to Dharma, Artha and Kama	22
II.	On the acquisition of Dharma, Artha and Kama	24
III.	On the Arts and Sciences to be studied	29
IV.	The Life of a Citizen	34
V.	On the kinds of Women resorted to by the Citizen, and on Friends and Messengers	41
	Part II On Sexual Union
I.	Kinds of Sexual Union according to Dimensions, Force of Desire, or Passion; and Time	48
II.	On the Embrace	54
III.	On Kissing	60
IV.	On Pressing or Marking or Scratching with the Nails	65
V.	On Biting, and the means to be employed with regard to Women of different countries	68
VI.	On the various ways of lying down, and the different kinds of Congress	72
VII.	On the various modes of Striking and On the Sounds appropriate to them	78
VIII.	On Women acting the part of a Man	83
IX.	On the Aukparishtaka or the Mouth Congress	85
X.	How to begin and how to end the Congress; Different kinds of Congress, and Love Quarrels	90
	Part III About the Acquisition of a Wife
I.	On Marriage	95
II.	On creating Confidence in the Girl	99
III.	On Courtship and the manifestation of the feelings by outward signs and deeds	103
IV.	On things to be done only by the Man, and the acquisition of the Girl thereby; also what is to be done by a Girl to gain over a Man and Subject him to her	107
V.	On certain forms of Marriage	111
	Part IV About a Wife
I.	On the manner of living of a Virtuous Woman and of her behavior during the absence of her Husband.	116
II.	On the conduct of the elder Wife towards the other Wives of her Husband, and of the younger Wife towards the elder ones. On the Conduct of a Virgin Widow remarried; of a Wife disliked by her Husband; On the Women in the King's Harem; and on the conduct of a Husband towards many Wives	121
	Part V About the Wives of other Men
I.	On the Characteristics of Men and Women,- the Reasons why Women reject the addresses of Men; About Men who have success with Women; and about Women who are easily gained over	128
II.	About making Acquaintance with the Woman and of the Efforts to gain her over	134
III.	Examination of the state of a Woman's mind	138
IV.	About the business of a Go-between	141
V.	About the Love of Persons in authority for the Wives of other Men	148
VI.	About the Women of the Royal Harem, and of the keeping of one's own Wife	153
	Part VI About Courtesans
I.	Of the causes of a Courtesan resorting to Men; of the means of attaching to her self the Man desired and of the kind of Man that is Desirable to be Acquainted with.	160
II.	Of living like a Wife	166
III.	Of the means of getting Money; of the Signs of change of a Lover's feelings; and of the way to get rid of him	170
IV.	About Re-union with a former Lover	175
V.	Of different kinds of gain	180
VI.	Of gains and losses, attendant gains and losses and doubts; as also of the different kinds of Courtesans	184
	Part VII About the means of attracting others to yourself
I.	On personal adornment; on subjugating the Hearts of others; and on Tonic Medicines	192
II.	Of the ways of exciting Desire, and Miscellaneous Experiments and Recipes	198
	Concluding Remarks	205

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