The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana

translation by Sir Richard Burton

• PREFACE

• PARTI

. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

. CHAPTER n. ON THE ACQUISITION OF DHARMA, ARTHA AND KAMA . CHAPTER m. ON THE ARTS AND SCIENCES TO BE STUDIED . CHAPTER IV. THE LIFE OF A CITIZEN

. CHAPTER V. ABOUT THE KINDS OF WOMEN RESORTED TO BY THE CITIZENS, AND OF FRIENDS AND MESSENGERS

• PART II

. CHAPTER I. KINDS OF SEXUAL UNION ACCORDING TO DIMENSIONS, FORCE

OF DESIRE OR PASSION, TIME . CHAPTER n. OF THE EMBRACE . CHAPTER m. ON KISSING

. CHAPTER IV. ON PRESSING, OR MARKING, OR SCRATCHING WITH THE NAILS . CHAPTER V. ON BITING, AND THE MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED WITH REGARD

TO WOMEN OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES . CHAPTER VI. OF THE DIFFERENT WAYS OF LYING DOWN, AND VARIOUS

KINDS OF CONGRESS . CHAPTER Vn. OF THE VARIOUS MODES OF STRIKING, AND OF THE SOUNDS

APPROPRIATE TO THEM . CHAPTER Vm. ABOUT WOMEN ACTING THE PART OF A MAN; AND OF THE

WORK OF A MAN

. CHAPTER IX. OF THE AUPARISHTAKA OR MOUTH CONGRESS . CHAPTER X. OF THE WAY HOW TO BEGIN AND HOW TO END THE CONGRESS.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONGRESS AND LOVE QUARRELS

• PART in

. CHAPTER I. ON MARRIAGE

. CHAPTER n. OF CREATING CONFIDENCE IN THE GIRL

. CHAPTER m. ON COURTSHIP, AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE FEELINGS BY

OUTWARD SIGNS AND DEEDS . CHAPTER IV. ABOUT 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 . CHAPTER V. ON CERTAIN FORMS OF MARRIAGE1

• PART IV

. CHAPTER I. ON THE MANNER OF LIVING OF A VIRTUOUS WOMAN, AND OF HER BEHAVIOUR DURING THE ABSENCE OF HER HUSBAND

. CHAPTER n. ON THE CONDUCT OF THE ELDER WIFE TOWARDS THE OTHER WIVES OF HER HUSBAND, AND ON THAT OF A YOUNGER WIFE TOWARDS THE ELDER ONES. ALSO ON THE CONDUCT OF A VIRGIN WIDOW RE-MARRIED; OF A WIFE DISLIKED BY HER HUSBAND; OF THE WOMEN IN THE KING'S HAREM; AND LASTLY ON THE CONDUCT OF A HUSBAND TOWARDS MANY WIVES

• PARTV

. CHAPTER I. OF 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

. CHAPTER n. ABOUT MAKING ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE WOMAN, AND OF THE EFFORTS TO GAIN HER OVER

. CHAPTER m. EXAMINATION OF THE STATE OF A WOMAN'S MIND

. CHAPTER IV. ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF A GO-BETWEEN

. CHAPTER V. ABOUT THE LOVE OF PERSONS IN AUTHORITY FOR THE WIVES OF OTHER MEN

. CHAPTER VI. ABOUT THE WOMEN OF THE ROYAL HAREM; AND OF THE KEEPING OF ONE'S OWN WIFE

• PART VI. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

. CHAPTER I. OF THE CAUSES OF A COURTESAN RESORTING TO MEN; OF THE MEANS OF ATTACHING TO HERSELF THE MAN DESIRED; AND OF THE KIND OF MAN THAT IT IS DESIRABLE TO BE ACQUAINTED WITH

. CHAPTER n. OF LIVING LIKE A WIFE

. CHAPTER m. OF THE MEANS OF GETTING MONEY, OF THE SIGNS OF THE CHANGE OF A LOVER'S FEELINGS, AND OF THE WAY TO GET RID OF HIM

. CHAPTER IV. ABOUT RE-UNION WITH A FORMER LOVER

. CHAPTER V. OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF GAIN

. CHAPTER VI. OF GAINS AND LOSSES; ATTENDANT GAINS AND LOSSES; AND DOUBTS; AS ALSO OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COURTESANS

• PART VII

. CHAPTER I. ON PERSONAL ADORNMENT; ON SUBJUGATING THE HEARTS OF

OTHERS; AND ON TONIC MEDICINES . CHAPTER n. OF THE WAYS OF EXCITING DESIRE, AND MISCELLANEOUS

EXPERIMENTS, AND RECIPES

• CONCLUDING REMARKS

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 points of view. In the

present publication it is proposed to give a complete translation of what is considered the standard work on love in Sanscrit 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 Vatsyayana had passed away, but who still considered him as the great authority, and always quoted him as the chief guide to Hindoo erotic literature.

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

The Ratirahasya, or secrets of love

The Panchasakya, or the five arrows

The Smara Pradipa, or the light of love

The Ratimanjari, or the garland of love

The Rasmanjari, or the sprout of love

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, the Padmini, Chitrini, Shankini 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 perused all the works of these authors, or had only heard about them; anyhow, none of them appear to be in existence now. This work contains nearly six hundred verses, and is divided into five chapters, 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 Sanscrit, 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 Hindostan 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 Sanscrit 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 Sanscrit poetry and in the Sanscrit 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 Hindoos 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 coloured. 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 voice is low and musical as the note of the Kokila bird, she delights in white raiments, in fine jewels, and in rich dresses. She eats little, sleeps lightly, and being as respectful and religious as she is clever and courteous, she is ever 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 Hindostan. 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 Hindoos. 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 of Medicine, London, 1880, and Every Woman's Book, by Dr Waters, 1826. To persons interested in the above subjects 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 Hindoo 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 have understood many things which they believed to be quite incomprehensible, or which were not thought worthy of their consideration.

Salutation to Dharma, Artha and Kama

IN the beginning, the Lord of Beings created men and women, and in the form of commandments in one hundred thousand chapters laid down rules for regulating their existence with regard to Dharma,J_ Artha,2 and Kama.3 Some of these commandments, namely those which treated of Dharma, were separately written by Swayambhu Manu; those that related to Artha were compiled by Brihaspati; and those that referred to Kama were expounded by Nandi, the follower of Mahadeva, in one thousand chapters.

Now these "Kama Sutra' (Aphorisms on Love), written by Nandi in one thousand chapters, were reproduced by Shvetaketu, the son of Uddvalaka, in an abbreviated form in five hundred chapters, and this work was again similarly reproduced in an abridged form, in one hundred and fifty chapters, by Babhravya, an inheritant of the Punchala (South of Delhi) country. These one hundred and fifty chapters were then put together under seven heads or parts named severally

1. Sadharana (general topics)

2. Samprayogika (embraces, etc.)

3. Kanya Samprayuktaka (union of males and females)

4. Bharyadhikarika (on one's own wife)

5. Paradika (on the wives of other people)

6. Vaisika (on courtesans)

7. Aupamishadika (on the arts of seduction, tonic medicines, etc.)

The sixth part of this last work was separately expounded by Dattaka at the request of the public women of Pataliputra (Patna), and in the same way Charayana explained the first part of it. The remaining parts, viz. the second, third, fourth, fifth, and seventh, were each separately expounded by

Suvarnanabha (second part)

Ghotakamukha (third part)

Gonardiya (fourth part)

Gonikaputra (fifth part)

Kuchumara (seventh part), respectively.

Thus the work being written in parts by different authors was almost unobtainable and, as the parts which were expounded by Dattaka and the others treated only of the particular branches of the subject to which each part related, and moreover as the original work of Babhravya was difficult to be mastered on account of its length, Vatsyayana, therefore, composed his work in a small volume as an abstract of the whole of the works of the above named authors.

PART I: INTRODUCTORY

1. Preface

2. Observations on the three worldly attainments of Virtue, Wealth, and Love

3. On the study of the Sixty-four Arts

4. On the Arrangements of a House, and Household Furniture; and about the Daily Life of a
Citizen, his Companions, Amusements, etc.

5. About classes of Women fit and unfit for Congress with the Citizen, and of Friends, and
Messengers

PART II: ON SEXUAL UNION

1. Kinds of Union according to Dimensions, Force of Desire, and Time; and on the different
kinds of Love

2. Of the Embrace

3. On Kissing

4. On Pressing or Marking with the Nails

5. On Biting, and the ways of Love to be employed with regard to Women of different
countries

6. On the various ways of Lying down, and the different kinds of Congress

7. On the various ways of Striking, and of the Sounds appropriate to them

8. About females acting the part of Males

9. On holding the Lingam in the Mouth

10.How to begin and how to end the Congress. Different kinds of Congress, and Love Quarrels

PART III: ABOUT THE ACQUISITION OF A WIFE

1. Observations on Betrothal and Marriage

2. About creating Confidence in the Girl

3. Courtship, and the manifestation of the feelings by outward signs and deeds

4. 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

5. On the different Forms of Marriage

PART IV: ABOUT A WIFE

1. On the manner of living of a virtuous Woman, and of her behaviour during the absence of
her Husband

2. On the conduct of the eldest Wife towards the other Wives of her Husband, and of the
younger Wife towards the elder ones. Also on the conduct of a Virgin Widow remarried; of
a Wife disliked by her Husband; of the Women in the King's Harem; and of a Husband who
has more than one Wife

PART V: ABOUT THE WIVES OF OTHER PEOPLE

1. On the Characteristics of Men and Women, and the reason why Women reject the Addresses of Men. About Men who have Success with Women, and about Women who are easily gained over

2. About making Acquaintance with the Woman, and of the efforts to gain her over

3. Examination of the State of a Woman's mind

4. The Business of a Go-Between

5. On the Love of Persons in authority with the Wives of other People

6. About the Women of the Royal Harem, and of the keeping of one's own Wife

PART VI: ABOUT COURTESANS

1. Of the Causes of a Courtesan resorting to Men; of the means of Attaching to herself the Man
desired, and the kind of Man that it is desirable to be acquainted with

2. Of a Courtesan living with a Man as his Wife

3. Of the Means of getting Money; of the Signs of a Lover who is beginning to be Weary, and
of the way to get rid of him

4. About a Reunion with a former Lover

5. Of different kinds of Gain

6. Of Gains and Losses, attendant Gains and Losses, and Doubts; and lastly, the different kinds
of Courtesans

PART VII: ON THE MEANS OF ATTRACTING OTHERS TO ONE'S SELF

1. On Personal Adornment, subjugating the hearts of others, and of tonic medicines

2. Of the means of exciting Desire, and of the ways of enlarging the Lingam. Miscellaneous
Experiments and Receipts

Footnotes

Dharma is acquisition of religious merit, and is fully described in Chapter 5, volume HI, of

Talboys Wheeler's History of India, and in the edicts of Asoka. 2

Artha is acquisition of wealth and property, etc. 3

Kama is love, pleasure and sensual gratification. These three words are retained throughout

in their original, as technical terms. They may also be defined as virtue, wealth and pleasure,

the three things repeatedly spoken of in the Laws of Manu.

PARTI

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 498