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Kama Sutra

This article is about the ancient text. For the 1996 film, see Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. For other uses, see Kama Sutra (disambiguation).

Kama Sutra
Two folios from a palm leaf manuscript of the Kamasutra text (Sanskrit, Devanagari script)
AuthorVatsyayana Mallanaga
Original titleकामसूत्र
TranslatorMany
LanguageSanskrit
SubjectErotic love
GenreSutra Literature
Set in2nd–3rd century CE
Publication placeClassical Age, India
Published in English
1883
TextKama Sutra at Wikisource
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The Kama Sutra (/ˈkɑːmə ˈsuːtrə/; Sanskrit: कामसूत्र, , Kāma-sūtra; lit. 'Principles of Love') is an ancient Indian Hindu Sanskrit text[1][2] on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment.[3][4][5] Attributed to Vātsyāyana,[6] the Kamasutra is neither exclusively nor predominantly a sex manual on sex positions,[3] but rather a guide on the art of living well, the nature of love, finding partners, maintaining sex life, and other aspects pertaining to pleasure-oriented faculties.[3][7][8] It is a sutra-genre text with terse aphoristic verses that have survived into the modern era with different bhāṣyas (commentaries). The text is a mix of prose and anustubh-meter poetry verses.

Kamasutra acknowledges the Hindu concept of purusharthas, and lists desire, sexuality, and emotional fulfillment as one of the proper goals of life. It discussed methods for courtship, training in the arts to be socially engaging, finding a partner, flirting, maintaining power in a married life, when and how to commit adultery, sexual positions, and other topics.[9] The text majorly dealt with the philosophy and theory of love, what triggers desire, what sustains it, and how and when it is good or bad.[10][11]

The text is one of many Indian texts on Kama Shastra.[12] It is a much-translated work in Indian and non-Indian languages, and has influenced many secondary texts that followed since the 4th-century CE, as well as the Indian arts as exemplified by the pervasive presence of Kama-related reliefs and sculpture in old Hindu temples. Of these, the Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[13] Among the surviving temple, one in Rajasthan has all the major chapters and sexual positions sculpted to illustrate the Kamasutra.[14]

According to Wendy Doniger, the Kamasutra became "one of the most pirated books in English language" soon after it was published in 1883 by Richard Burton. This first European edition by Burton does not faithfully reflect much in the Kamasutra because he revised the collaborative translation by Bhagavanlal Indrajit and Shivaram Parashuram Bhide with Forster Arbuthnot to suit 19th-century Victorian tastes.[15]

  1. ^ Doniger, Wendy (2003). Kamasutra - Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press. p. i. ISBN 9780192839824. The Kamasutra is the oldest extant Hindu textbook of erotic love. It was composed in Sanskrit, the literary language of ancient India, probably in North India and probably sometime in the third century
  2. ^ Coltrane, Scott (1998). Gender and families. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 36. ISBN 9780803990364. Archived from the original on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Wendy Doniger & Sudhir Kakar 2002, p. xi.
  4. ^ Coltrane, Scott (1998). Gender and families. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8039-9036-4. Archived from the original on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  5. ^ Wendy Doniger (2003). "The "Kamasutra": It Isn't All about Sex". The Kenyon Review. New Series. 25 (1): 18–37. JSTOR 4338414.
  6. ^ Haksar & Favre 2011, pp. 1–5.
  7. ^ Carroll, Janell (2009). Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity. Cengage Learning. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-495-60274-3. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  8. ^ Devi, Chandi (2008). From Om to Orgasm: The Tantra Primer for Living in Bliss. AuthorHouse. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-4343-4960-6. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  9. ^ Wendy Doniger & Sudhir Kakar 2002, p. xi–xiii.
  10. ^ Alain Daniélou, The Complete Kama Sutra: The First Unabridged Modern Translation of the Classic Indian Text, ISBN 978-0-89281-525-8.
  11. ^ Jacob Levy (2010), Kama sense marketing, iUniverse, ISBN 978-1-4401-9556-3, see Introduction
  12. ^ Flood (1996), p. 65.
  13. ^ Khajuraho Group of Monuments Archived 16 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine UNESCO World Heritage Site
  14. ^ Ramgarh temple Archived 9 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine, The British Library
  15. ^ Wendy Doniger (2016). Redeeming the Kamasutra. Oxford University Press. pp. 155–157. ISBN 978-0-19-049928-0. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2018.

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