KAMASUTRA

Kamasutra is an ancient Indian text renowned more for the practical advice it gives on sexual intercourse (which is just a part of it). The words “kama” and “sutra” have definite meanings. Kama means desire in the general sense but particularly sexual desire. Sutra literally means thread but it is implied in the sense of a thread to hold a line going in a direction. In Sanskrit it refers to a set of aphorisms or verses that form a manual.

The Kamasutra is not exclusively on sex as popularly believed. It is a guide book or art of leading a virtuously which touches upon many aspects of social and individual life such as nature of love, family life and pleasure oriented activities with much needed restraint.

With 1250 verses divided in 36 chapters organized into 7 parts, it offers an excellent commentary on various aspects of a householder’s life in providing better sex life and may helps in solving sexual problems.

Part 1

The first part deals with goals and priorities of life, how to acquire knowledge, dealings of well-bred citizen, suggestions for the intermediaries who hep in lover’s enterprises.

Part 2

Deals with stimulation of desire, kinds of embraces, kissing and caressing, amorous marking with nails, amorous biting acts and making a mark with teeth, positions of copulation, slapping followed by moaning, virile behaviour in women, better coition, precursors and conclusions of the art of love making. 64 types of sexual acts are described in it. Kamasutra has become notorious for this part of the book.

Part 3

Deals with types of marriage, making the girl feel relaxed, getting the girl, surviving alone, union by marriage.

Part 4

Deals with conduct of the only wife and in case there are more than one, the conduct of chief wife and other wives.

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Part 5

Deals with behaviour of women and men, how to get to know each other, evaluation of sentiments, the task of go-between, the king's pleasures, behavior in the women's quarters (6 chapters).

Part 6

Deals with advice of the amorous assistants on making a choice of lovers, finding a steady lover, how to earn money, making up with a former lover and renewing friendship, occasional profits, profits and losses.

Part 7

Deals with improvement of physical attractions and stirring up a damaged sexual power.

The following 64 arts are to be studied with the Kama Sutra:

Singing

Playing on musical instruments

Dancing

Union of dancing, singing, and playing instrumental music

Writing and drawing

Tattooing

Arraying and adorning an idol with rice and flowers

Spreading and arranging beds or couches of flowers, or flowers upon the ground

Coloring the teeth, garments, hair, nails and bodies, i.e. staining, dyeing, Coloring and painting the same

Fixing stained glass into a floor

The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining

Playing on musical glasses filled with water

Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs

Picture making, trimming and decorating

Stringing of rosaries, necklaces, garlands and wreaths

Binding of turbans and chaplets, and making crests and top-knots of flowers

Scenic representations, stage playing Art of making ear ornaments Art

Preparing perfumes and odors

Proper disposition of jewels and decorations, and adornment in dress

Magic or sorcery

Quickness of hand or manual skill

Culinary art, i.e. cooking and cookery

Making lemonades, sherbets, acidulated drinks, and spirituous extracts with proper flavor and colour

Tailor's work and sewing

Making parrots, flowers, tufts, tassels, bunches, bosses, knobs, etc., out of yarn or thread

Solution of riddles, enigmas, covert speeches, verbal puzzles and enigmatical questions

A game, which consisted in repeating verses, and as one person finished, another person had to commence at once, repeating another verse, beginning with the same letter with which the last speaker's verse ended, whoever failed to repeat was considered to have lost, and to be subject to pay a forfeit or stake of some kind

The art of mimicry or imitation

Reading, including chanting and intoning

Study of sentences difficult to pronounce. It is played as a game chiefly by women, and children and consists of a difficult sentence being given, and when repeated quickly, the words are often transposed or badly pronounced

Practice with sword, single stick, quarter staff and bow and arrow

Drawing inferences, reasoning or inferring

Carpentry, or the work of a carpenter

Architecture, or the art of building

Knowledge about gold and silver coins, and jewels and gems

Chemistry and mineralogy

Coloring jewels, gems and beads

Knowledge of mines and quarries

Gardening; knowledge of treating the diseases of trees and plants, of nourishing them, and determining their ages

Art of cock fighting, quail fighting and ram fighting

Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak

Art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with unguents and perfumes and braiding it

The art of understanding writing in cipher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way

The art of speaking by changing the forms of words. It is of various kinds. Some speak by changing the beginning and end of words, others by adding unnecessary letters between every syllable of a word, and so on

Knowledge of language and of the vernacular dialects

Art of making flower carriages

Art of framing mystical diagrams, of addressing spells and charms, and binding armlets

Mental exercises, such as completing stanzas or verses on receiving a part of them; or supplying one, two or three lines when the remaining lines are given indiscriminately from different verses, so as to make the whole an entire verse with regard to its meaning; or arranging the words of a verse written irregularly by separating the vowels from the consonants, or leaving them out altogether; or putting into verse or prose sentences represented by signs or symbols. There are many other such exercises.

Composing poems

Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies

Knowledge of ways of changing and disguising the appearance of persons

Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good.

Various ways of gambling

Art of obtaining possession of the property of others by means of mantras or incantations

Skill in youthful sports

Knowledge of the rules of society, and of how to pay respect and compliments to others

Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, etc.

Knowledge of gymnastics

Art of knowing the character of a man from his features

Knowledge of scanning or constructing verses

Arithmetical recreations

Making artificial flowers

Making figures and images in clay

A public woman, endowed with a good disposition, beauty and other winning qualities, and also versed in the above arts, obtains the name of aGanika, 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 in the above arts, can make their husbands favorable to them, even though these may have thousands of other wives besides themselves.

If a wife becomes separated from her husband, and falls into distress, she can support 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 the circumstances 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.

Kama Sutra: 4 Kinds of Love

Men learned in the humanities are of opinion that love is of four kinds:

1) Love acquired by continual habit

Love resulting from the constant and continual performance of some act is called love acquired by constant practice and habit, as for instance the love of sexual intercourse, the love of hunting, the love of drinking, the love of gambling, etc., etc.

2) Love resulting from the imagination

Love which is felt for things to which we are not habituated, and which proceeds entirely from ideas, is called love resulting from imagination, as for instance that love which some men and women and eunuchs feel for the Auparishtaka or mouth congress, and that which is felt by all for such things as embracing, kissing etc.

3) Love resulting from belief

The love which is mutual on both sides, and proved to be true, when each looks upon the other as his or her very own, such is called love resulting from belief by the learned.

4) Love resulting from the perception of external objects

The love resulting from the perception of external objects is quite evident and well known to the world. because the pleasure which it affords is superior to the pleasure of the other kinds of love, which exists only for its sake.