Kama Sutra

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For other uses, see Kama Sutra (disambiguation).

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. It is said to be authored by Mallanaga Vatsyayana. A portion of the work deals with human sexual behavior.[1]

The Kama Sutra is mostly notable of a group of texts known generically as Kama Shastra (Sanskrit: Kāma Śhāstra).[2] 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.[3]

Historian John Keay says that the Kama Sutra is a compendium that was collected into its present form in the second century CE; however, given that Mallanaga Vatsyayana wrote sometime in the Gupta period (between 4th and 6th centuries), this speculation of Keay's is doubtful.[4]

Contents

[edit] Content

The Mallanaga Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra has 36 chapters, organized into 7 parts[5]. According to both the Burton and Doniger[6] 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, embraces types, 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).
Artistic depiction of a sex position. Although Kama Sutra did not originally have illustrative images, part 2 of the work describes different sex positions.
Artistic depiction of a sex position. Although Kama Sutra did not originally have illustrative images, part 2 of the work describes different sex positions.
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).

[edit] Pleasure and spirituality

Some Indian philosophies following the "four main goals of life",[7][8] known as the purusharthas:[9]

1). Dharma: Virtuous living. 2). Artha: Material prosperity. 3). Kama: Aesthetic and erotic pleasure.[10][11] 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)[12]

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.[13]

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.

[edit] 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.[14]

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.[15]

Alain Daniélou contributed a translation called The Complete Kama Sutra[16] 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.[17]

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.[18]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Common misconceptions about Kama Sutra. “The Kama Sutra is neither a sex-manual nor, as also commonly believed, a sacred or religious work. It is certainly not a tantric text. In opening with a discussion of the three aims of ancient Hindu life – dharma, artha and kama – Vatsyayana's purpose is to set kama, or enjoyment of the senses, in context. Thus dharma or virtuous living is the highest aim, artha, the amassing of wealth is next, and kama is the least of three.” —Indra Sinha.
  2. ^ For Kama Sutra as the most notable of the kāma śhāstra literature see: Flood (1996), p. 65.
  3. ^ For Nandi reporting the utterance see: p. 3. Daniélou, Alain. The Complete Kama Sutra: The First Unabridged Modern Translation of the Classic Indian Text. Inner Traditions: 1993. ISBN 0-89281-525-6.
  4. ^ For the Kama Sutra as a compilation, and dating to second century CE, see: Keay, pp. 81, 103.
  5. ^ book, see index pages by Wendy Doniger, also translation by Burton
  6. ^ Date checked: 29 March 2007 Burton and Doniger
  7. ^ For the Dharma Śāstras as discussing the "four main goals of life" (dharma, artha, kāma, and moksha) see: Hopkins, p. 78.
  8. ^ For dharma, artha, and kama as "brahmanic householder values" see: Flood (1996), p. 17.
  9. ^ For definition of the term पुरुष-अर्थ (puruṣa-artha) as "any of the four principal objects of human life, i.e. धर्म, अर्थ, काम, and मोक्ष" see: Apte, p. 626, middle column, compound #1.
  10. ^ For kāma as one of the four goals of life (kāmārtha) see: Flood (1996), p. 65.
  11. ^ For definition of kāma as "erotic and aesthetic pleasure" see: Flood (1996), p. 17.
  12. ^ Quotation from the translation by Richard Burton taken from [1]. Text accessed 3 April 2007.
  13. ^ Book I, Chapter ii, Lines 2-4 Vatsyayana Kamasutram Electronic Sanskrit edition: Titus Texts, University of Frankfurt bālye vidyāgrahaṇādīn artʰān, kāmaṃ ca yauvane, stʰāvire dʰarmaṃ mokṣaṃ ca
  14. ^ Avari (2007), p. 171.
  15. ^ Sinha, p. 33.
  16. ^ The Complete Kama Sutra by Alain Daniélou
  17. ^ Review of The Complete Kama Sutra by Alain Daniélou
  18. ^ Avari (2007), p. 171.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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