Kama Sutra
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The Kama Sutra (Sanskrit: कामसूत्र), (alternative spellings: Kamasutram or
simply Kamasutra), is an ancient Indian text widely considered to be the
standard work on love in Sanskrit literature written by the Indian
intellectual Vatsyayana. A portion of the work deals with human sexual
behavior.The Kama Sutra is mostly notable of a group of texts known
generically as Kama Shastra (Sanskrit: Kāma Śhāstra). Traditionally, the
first transmission of Kama Shastra or "Discipline of Kama" is attributed to
Nandi the sacred bull, Shiva's doorkeeper, who was moved to sacred utterance
by overhearing the lovemaking of the god and his wife Parvati and later
recorded his utterances for the benefit of mankind.
Historian John Keay says that the Kama Sutra is a compendium that was
collected into its present form in the second century CE.
Regarding how the composition became known to the Western world, Burton's
translation says the following in its introduction:
It may be interesting to some persons to learn how it came about that
Vatsyayana was first brought to light and translated into the English
language. It happened thus. While translating with the pundits the `Anunga
Runga, or the stage of love', reference was frequently found to be made to
one Vatsya. The sage Vatsya was of this opinion, or of that opinion. The
sage Vatsya said this, and so on. Naturally questions were asked who the
sage was, and the pundits replied that Vatsya was the author of the standard
work on love in Sanskrit literature, that no Sanscrit library was complete
without his work, and that it was most difficult now to obtain in its entire
state. The copy of the manuscript obtained in Bombay was defective, and so
the pundits wrote to Benares, Calcutta and Jaipur for copies of the
manuscript from Sanskrit libraries in those places. Copies having been
obtained, they were then compared with each other, and with the aid of a
Commentary called `Jayamangla' a revised copy of the entire manuscript was
prepared, and from this copy the English translation was made. The following
is the certificate of the chief pundit:
`The accompanying manuscript is corrected by me after comparing four
different copies of the work. I had the assistance of a Commentary called "Jayamangla"
for correcting the portion in the first five parts, but found great
difficulty in correcting the remaining portion, because, with the exception
of one copy thereof which was tolerably correct, all the other copies I had
were far too incorrect. However, I took that portion as correct in which the
majority of the copies agreed with each other.'
Content
The Mallanaga Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra has 1250 verses, distributed in 36
chapters, which are further organized into 7 parts. According to both the
Burton and Doniger translations, the contents of the book are structured
into 7 parts like the following:
1. Introductory
Chapters on contents of the book, three aims and priorities of life, the
acquisition of knowledge, conduct of the well-bred townsman, reflections on
intermediaries who assist the lover in his enterprises (5 chapters).
2. On sexual union
Chapters on stimulation of desire, types of embraces, caressing and kisses,
marking with nails, biting and marking with teeth, on copulation
(positions), slapping by hand and corresponding moaning, virile behavior in
women, superior coition and oral sex, preludes and conclusions to the game
of love. It describes 64 types of sexual acts (10 chapters).
3. About the acquisition of a wife
Chapters on forms of marriage, relaxing the girl, obtaining the girl,
managing alone, union by marriage (5 chapters).
4. About a wife
Chapters on conduct of the only wife and conduct of the chief wife and other
wives (2 chapters).
5. About the wives of other people
Chapters on behavior of woman and man, encounters to get acquainted,
examination of sentiments, the task of go-between, the king's pleasures,
behavior in the women's quarters (6 chapters).
6. About courtesans
Chapters on advice of the assistants on the choice of lovers, looking for a
steady lover, ways of making money, renewing friendship with a former lover,
occasional profits, profits and losses (6 chapters).
7. On the means of attracting others to one's self
Chapters on improving physical attractions, arousing a weakened sexual power
(2 chapters).
Pleasure and spirituality
Some Indian philosophies following the "four main goals of life", known
as the purusharthas:
1). Dharma: Virtuous living. 2). Artha: Material prosperity. 3). Kama:
Aesthetic and erotic pleasure. 4). Moksha: Liberation.
Dharma, Artha and Kama are aims of everyday life, while Moksha is release
from the cycle of death and rebirth. The Kama Sutra (Burton translation)
says:
"Dharma is better than Artha, and Artha is better than Kama. But Artha
should always be first practised by the king for the livelihood of men is to
be obtained from it only. Again, Kama being the occupation of public women,
they should prefer it to the other two, and these are exceptions to the
general rule." (Kama Sutra 1.2.14)
Of the first three, virtue is the highest goal, a secure life the second
and pleasure the least important. When motives conflict, the higher ideal is
to be followed. Thus, in making money virtue must not be compromised, but
earning a living should take precedence over pleasure, but there are
exceptions.
In childhood, Vātsyāyana says, a person should learn how to make a
living; youth is the time for pleasure, and as years pass one should
concentrate on living virtuously and hope to escape the cycle of rebirth.
The Kama Sutra is sometimes wrongly thought of as a manual for tantric
sex. While sexual practices do exist within the very wide tradition of Hindu
tantra, the Kama Sutra is not a tantric text, and does not touch upon any of
the sexual rites associated with some forms of tantric practice.
Also the Buddha preached a Kama Sutra, which is located in the
Atthakavagga (sutra number 1). This Kama Sutra, however, is of a very
different nature as it warns against the dangers that come with the search
for pleasures of the senses.
Translations
The most widely known English translation of the Kama Sutra was made by
the famous traveler and author Sir Richard Francis Burton and compiled by
his colleague Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot in 1883. Historian Burjor Avari
has criticized Burton's translation as "inadequate," having had the result
that the book gained a reputation in the West of being a pornographic work.
A recent translation is that of Indra Sinha, published in 1980. In the
early 1990s its chapter on lovemaking positions began circulating on the
internet as an independent text and today is often assumed to be the whole
of the Kama Sutra.
Alain Daniélou contributed a translation called The Complete Kama Sutra
in 1994. This translation featured the original text attributed to Vatsayana,
along with a medieval and modern commentary. Unlike Burton's version, Alain
Danielou's new translation preserves the numbered verse divisions of the
original and includes two essential commentaries: the Jayamangala
commentary, written in Sanskrit by Yashodhara during the Middle Ages, and a
modern Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastri. Another noteworthy difference
is the preservation of the full explicitness of the original text. All
aspects of sexual life have been mentioned - including marriage, adultery,
prostitution, group sex, sadomasochism, male and female homosexuality, and
transvestism.
It was translated again in 2002 by Wendy Doniger, the professor of the
history of religions at the University of Chicago, and Sudhir Kakar, the
Indian psychoanalyst and senior fellow at Center for Study of World
Religions at Harvard University. Their translation provides a psychoanalytic
interpretation of the text.
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