Everyone knows the Kama Sutra
Book 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 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 Book, 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 Book 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 Book 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 Book 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, |
