SEX MANUAL BY KAMA SUTRA

                                     
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 Sanscrit 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 Jeypoor for copies of the manuscript from Sanscrit 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 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

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 moreoveras 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.  

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

ON THE ACQUISITION OF DHARMA, ARTHA AND KAMA

MAN, the period of whose life is one hundred years, should practise Dharma, Artha and Kama at different times and in such a manner that they may harmonize together and not clash in any way. He should acquire learning in his childhood, inhis youth and middle age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and in his old age he should perform Dharma, and thus seek to gain Moksha, i.e. release from further transmigration. Or, on account of the uncertainty of life, he may practise themat times when they are enjoined to be practised. But one thing is to be noted, he should lead the life of a religious student until he finishes his education.

                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 Dharma is obedience to the command of the Shastra or Holy Writ of the Hindoos to do certain things, such as the performance of sacrifices, which are not generally done, because they do not belong to this world, and produce no visible effect;and not to do other things, such as eating meat, which is often done because it belongs to this world, and has visible effects.Dharma should be learnt from the Shruti (Holy Writ), and from those conversant with it.Artha is the acquisition of arts, land, gold, cattle, wealth, equipages and friends. It is, further, the protection of what is acquired, and the increase of what is protected.Artha should be learnt from the king's officers, and from merchants who may be versed in the ways of commerce.Kama is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object,and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama.Kama is to be learnt from the Kama Sutra (aphorisms on love) and from the practice of citizens.When all the three, viz. Dharma, Artha and Kama, come together, the former is better than the one which follows it, i.e. Dharma is better than Artha, and Artha is better than Kama. But Artha should always be first practised by the king for thelivelihood of men is to be obtained from it only. Again, Kama being the occupation of public women, they should preferit to the other two, and these are exceptions to the general rule.

1 These were certainly materialists who seemed to think that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.

2 Among the Hindoos the four classes of men are the Brahmans or priestly class, the Kshutrya or warlike class, the Vaishya or agricultural and mercantile class, and the Shoodra or menial class. The four stages of life are, the life of a religiousstudent, the life of a householder, the life of a hermit, and the life of a Sunyasi or devotee.
3 Bali was a demon who had conquered Indra and gained his throne, but was afterwards overcome by Vishnu at the time of his fifth incarnation.4 Dandakya is said to have abducted from the forest the daughter of a Brahman, named Bhargava, and, being cursed by the Brahman, was buried with his kingdom under a shower of dust. The place was called after his name the Dandakaforest, celebrated in the Bamayana, but now unknown.Ahalya was the wife of the sage Gautama. Indra caused her to believe that he was Gautama, and thus enjoyed her. He was cursed by Gautama and subsequently afflicted with a thousand ulcers on his body.
Kichaka was the brother-in-law of King Virata, with whom the Pandavas had taken refuge for one year. Kichaka was killed by Bhima, who assumed the disguise of Draupadi. For this story the Mahabarata should be referred to.The story of Ravana is told in the Ramayana, which with the Mahabarata form the two great epic poems of the Hindoos; the latter was written by Vyasa, and the former by Valmiki.

MAN should study the Kama Sutra and the arts and sciences subordinate thereto, in addition to the study of the arts and sciences contained in Dharma and Artha. Even young maids should study this Kama Sutra along with its arts and sciences before marriage, and after it they should continue to do so with the consent of their husbands.Here some learned men object, and say that females, not being allowed to study any science, should not study the Kama Sutra.

But Vatsyayana is of opinion that this objection does not hold good, for women already know the practice of Kama Sutra, and that practice is derived from the Kama Shastra, or the science of Kama itself. Moreover, it is not only in this but inmany other cases that, though the practice of a science is known to all, only a few persons are acquainted with the rules and laws on which the science is based. Thus the Yadnikas or sacrificers, though ignorant of grammar, make use ofappropriate words when addressing the different Deities, and do not know how these words are framed. Again, persons do the duties required of them on auspicious days, which are fixed by astrology, though they are not acquainted with thescience of astrology. In a like manner riders of horses and elephants train these animals without knowing the science of training animals, but from practice only. And similarly the people of the most distant provinces obey the laws of thekingdom from practice, and because there is a king over them, and without further reason. 1 And from experience we find that some women, such as daughters of princes and their ministers, and public women, are actually versed in the KamaShastra.

A female, therefore, should learn the Kama Shastra, or at least a part of it, by studying its practice from some confidential friend. She should study alone in private the sixty-four practices that form a part of the Kama Shastra. Her teachershould be one of the following persons: the daughter of a nurse brought up with her and already married, 2 or a female friend who can be trusted in everything, or the sister of her mother (i.e. her aunt), or an old female servant, or a femalebeggar who may have formerly lived in the family, or her own sister who can always be trusted

A public woman, endowed with a good disposition, beauty and other winning qualities, and also versed in the above arts, obtains the name of a Ganika, or public woman of high quality, and receives a seat of honour in an assemblage of men.

She is, moreover, always respected by the king, and praised by learned men, and her favour being sought for by all, she becomes an object of universal regard. The daughter of a king too as well as the daughter of a minister, being learned inthe above arts, can make their husbands favourable to them, even though these may have thousands of other wives besides themselves. And in the same manner, if a wife becomes separated from her husband, and falls into distress, she cansupport herself easily, even in a foreign country, by means of her knowledge of these arts. Even the bare knowledge of them gives attractiveness to a woman, though the practice of them may be only possible or otherwise according to thecircumstances of each case. A man who is versed in these arts, who is loquacious and acquainted with the arts of gallantry, gains very soon the hearts of women, even though he is only acquainted with them for a short time.

HAVING thus acquired learning, a man, with the wealth that he may have gained by gift, conquest, purchase, deposit, 1 or inheritance from his ancestors, should become a householder, and pass the life of a citizen. 2 He should take a house in

a city, or large village, or in the vicinity of good men, or in a place which is the resort of many persons. This abode should be situated near some water, and divided into different compartments for different purposes. It should be surrounded bya garden, and also contain two rooms, an outer and an inner one. The inner room should be occupied by the females, while the outer room, balmy with rich perfumes, should contain a bed, soft, agreeable to the sight, covered with a clean whitecloth, low in the middle part, having garlands and bunches of flowers 3 upon it, and a canopy above it, and two pillows, one at the top, another at the bottom. There should be also a sort of couch besides, and at the head of this a sort of stool,on which should be placed the fragrant ointments for the night, as well as flowers, pots containing collyrium and other fragrant substances, things used for perfuming the mouth, and the bark of the common citron tree. Near the couch, on theground, there should be a pot for spitting, a box containing ornaments, and also a lute hanging from a peg made of the tooth of an elephant, a board for drawing, a pot containing perfume, some books, and some garlands of the yellow amaranthflowers. Not far from the couch, and on the ground, there should be a round seat, a toy cart, and a board for playing with dice; outside the outer room there should be cages of birds, 4 and a separate place for spinning, carving and such likediversions. In the garden there should be a whirling swing and a common swing, as also a bower of creepers covered with flowers, in which a raised parterre should be made for sitting.                

Now the householder, having got up in the morning and performed his necessary duties, 5 should wash his teeth, apply a limited quantity of ointments and perfumes to his body, put some ornaments on his person and collyrium on his eyelidsand below his eyes, colour his lips with alacktaka, 6 and look at himself in the glass. Having then eaten betel leaves, with other things that give fragrance to the mouth, he should perform his usual business. He should bathe daily, anoint hisbody with oil every other day, apply a lathering substance 7 to his body every three days, get his head (including face) shaved every four days and the other parts of his body every five or ten days. 8 All these things should be done without fail,and the sweat of the armpits should also be removed. Meals should be taken in the forenoon, in the afternoon, and again at night, according to Charayana. After breakfast, parrots and other birds should be taught to speak, and the fighting ofcocks, quails, and rams should follow. A limited time should be devoted to diversions with Pithamardas, Vitas, and Vidushakas, 9 and then should be taken the midday sleep. 10 After this the householder, having put on his clothes andornaments, should, during the afternoon, converse with his friends. In the evening there should be singing, and after that the householder, along with his friend, should await in his room, previously decorated and perfumed, the arrival of thewoman that may be attached to him, or he may send a female messenger for her, or go for her himself. After her arrival at his house, he and his friend should welcome her, and entertain her with a loving and agreeable conversation. Thus endthe duties of the day

                                     
On some particular auspicious day, an assembly of citizens should be convened in the temple of Saraswati. 12 There the skill of singers, and of others who may have come recently to the town, should be tested, and on the following day theyshould always be given some rewards. After that they may either be retained or dismissed, according as their performances are liked or not by the assembly. The members of the assembly should act in concert, both in times of distress as wellas in times of prosperity, and it is also the duty of these citizens to show hospitality to strangers who may have come to the assembly. What is said above should be understood to apply to all the other festivals which may be held in honour ofthe different Deities, according to the present rules.


 Social Gatherings

                  
When men of the same age, disposition and talents, fond of the same diversions and with the same degree of education, sit together in company with public women, 13 or in an assembly of citizens, or at the abode of one among themselves,and engage in agreeable discourse with each other, such is called a Sitting in company or a social gathering. The subjects of discourse are to be the completion of verses half composed by others, and the testing the knowledge of one another inthe various arts. The women who may be the most beautiful, who may like the same things that the men like, and who may have power to attract the minds of others, are here done homage to.Drinking Parties.

LOVE TEACHINGS OF KAMA SUTRA

Everyone knows the Kama Sutra is ancient India's racy sex manual. The title conjures titillating visions of erotic frescos in which regal maharajas with outsized genitals cavort with naked bejeweled nymphs in positions exotic enough to slip the discs of a yoga master.

Kama - is the Hindu god of love. The word also refers to the pursuit of love or pleasure, one of the four aims of life in Hindu traditions. Kama is always depicted as a handsome youth, shooting arrows of love that produce love. The Kama Sutra, which means Sex Science, is the earliest surviving example of a written Hindu love-manual.

Kama Sutra was written between the 1st and 4th Centuries AD by the Indian sage Vatsyayana, who lived in the North Indian city of Benares. D. His work was based on earlier Kama Shastras or "Rules of Love".

The Kama Sutra contains a total of 64 sexual Kama Sutra Positions. Vatsyayana believed there were eight ways of making love, multiplied by eight positions within each of these. In the book, they are known as the 64 Atrs.   

Kama Sutra literally means "treatise on sexual pleasure." Unlike the Christian view that the sole purpose of sex is procreation, in the fourth century Hindu world that gave birth to the Kama Sutra, the cultivation of sexual pleasure, independent of procreation, was considered one of life's highest callings. The ancient Hindus believed that life had three purposes: religious piety (dharma), material success (artha), and sexual pleasure (kama). All three were equal, and the erotic was celebrated as the seat of earthly beauty. In the Hindu world the pursuit of sexual pleasure was revered as a sort of religious quest.. 

The Kama Sutra was written by one Vatsyayana Mallanaga, about whom nothing else is known. However, from the text, it's clear that he was upper-class. He takes servants for granted, and assumes his readers have the leisure time to seduce virgins and other men's wives, and the money to buy the gifts he recommends giving to do so. Vatsyayana also claims to have written his treatise "in chastity and highest meditation." It's hard to know what to make of this. Some commentators have scoffed that, given the subject matter, this seems highly unlikely. But considering the reverence with which the ancient Hindus approached matters sexual, it's also possible that Vatsyayana wrote his book with the gravity of, say, a modern-art critic discussing a cache of just-discovered erotic paintings by Picasso. We'll never know.

The Kama Sutra may be the ancient world's most famous sex book, but it was by no means the first. The Chinese had sex manuals 500 years earlier, and Ovid's "Ars Amatoria," a handbook for courtesans, preceded the "Kamasutra" by some 200 years. The Kama Sutra is not even the first Indian sex guide. Vatsyayana mentions several sages who trod his erotic path before him.

The sexual culture it describes is also surprisingly like our own. While the Kama Sutra describes girls and women as dependent on their fathers, husbands and adult sons - in the manner of women in today's Arab Middle East - in the India of the text, they enjoyed an independence and freedom of movement Saudi or Pakistani women can only dream of. While their wealthy fathers and husbands were running businesses and the government - not to mention fucking around - young women were often free to date men and select their own husbands, and married women were free to select lovers and entertain them.

The Kama Sutra is organized in seven sections that track men through life. In Book 1, the bachelor sets up his pad. In Book 2, he perfects his sexual techniques. This is the book that has inspired the videos, games and everything else that flies the Kama Sutra flag. In Book 3, our young man seduces a virgin. In Book 4, he marries and sets up a household for his wife and servants. By Book 5, he has grown sexually bored with his wife, and turns to seducing other men's wives.

Eventually, as he ages, the effort necessary for such dalliances loses its charm, so in Book 6, he takes up with courtesans, who work to please him - but for a price. Finally, in old age, he fears he is losing his potency and attractiveness, so Book 7 contains recipes for herbal potions to preserve them.

Although Vatsyayana was a man writing for men, some of the Kama Sutra speaks directly to women: Book 3 tells virgins how to attract husbands. Book 4 instructs women how to be good wives. Book 6 deals with the skills required of courtesans - including how they should provide for their own old age by stealing from their patrons. This information does not seem odd until you realize that in fourth century India, few if any women could read. It's not clear how they obtained the Kama Sutra's information. Apparently, some did. Presumably literate men read it to them, as clergy a few centuries ago read the Bible to illiterate congregants.