VATSYAYANA Kamasutra

ten authors on the subject, all of whose works he had
consulted, but none of which are extant, and does not
mention this one. This would tend to show that Kukkoka
wrote after Vatsya, otherwise Vatsya would assuredly
have mentioned him as an author in this branch of
literature along with the others.
The author of the ‘Five Arrows’ was one Jyotirisha. He
is called the chief ornament of poets, the treasure of the
sixty-four arts, and the best teacher of the rules of music.
He says that he composed the work after reflecting on the
aphorisms of love as revealed by the gods, and studying
the opinions of Gonikaputra, Muladeva, Babhravya,
Ramtideva, Nundikeshwara and Kshemandra. It is
impossible to say whether he had perused all the works of
these authors, or had only heard about them; anyhow,
none of them appear to be in existence now. This work
contains nearly six hundred verses, and is divided into
five chapters, called Sayakas or Arrows.
The author of the ‘Light of Love’ was the poet
Gunakara, the son of Vechapati. The work contains four
hundred verses, and gives only a short account of the
doctrines of love, dealing more with other matters.
‘The Garland of Love’ is the work of the famous poet
Jayadeva, who said about himself that he is a writer on all
subjects. This treatise is, however, very short, containing
only one hundred and twenty-five verses.
The author of the ‘Sprout of Love’ was a poet called
Bhanudatta. It appears from the last verse of the
manuscript that he was a resident of the province of
Tirhoot, and son of a Brahman named Ganeshwar, who
was also a poet. The work, written in Sanscrit, gives the
descriptions of different classes of men and women, their
classes being made out from their age, description,
conduct, etc. It contains three chapters, and its date is not
known, and cannot be ascertained.
‘The Stage of Love’ was composed by the poet
Kullianmull, for the amusement of Ladkhan, the son of
Ahmed Lodi, the same Ladkhan being in some places
spoken of as Ladana Mull, and in others as Ladanaballa.
He is supposed to have been a relation or connection of
the house of Lodi, which reigned in Hindostan from A.D.
1450-1526. The work would, therefore, have been written
in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It contains ten
chapters, and has been translated into English but only six
copies were printed for private circulation. This is
supposed to be the latest of the Sanscrit works on the
subject, and the ideas in it were evidently taken from
previous writings of the same nature.
The contents of these works are in themselves a literary
curiosity. There are to be found both in Sanscrit poetry
and in the Sanscrit drama a certain amount of poetical
sentiment and romance, which have, in every country and
in every language, thrown an immortal halo round the
subject. But here it is treated in a plain, simple, matter of
fact sort of way.
Men and women are divided into classes and divisions
in the same way that Buffon and other writers on natural
history have classified and divided the animal world. As
Venus was represented by the Greeks to stand forth as the
type of the beauty of woman, so the Hindoos describe the
Padmini or Lotus woman as the type of most perfect
feminine excellence, as follows:
She in whom the following signs and symptoms appear
is called a Padmini. Her face is pleasing as the full moon;
her body, well clothed with flesh, is soft as the Shiras or
mustard flower, her skin is fine, tender and fair as the
yellow lotus, never dark coloured.
Her eyes are bright and beautiful as the orbs of the
fawn, well cut, and with reddish corners. Her bosom is
hard, full and high; she has a good neck; her nose is
straight and lovely, and three folds or wrinkles cross her
middle - about the umbilical region. Her yoni resembles
the opening lotus bud, and her love seed (Kama salila) is
perfumed like the lily that has newly burst. She walks
with swan-like gait, and her voice is low and musical as
the note of the Kokila bird, she delights in white raiments,
in fine jewels, and in rich dresses. She eats little, sleeps
lightly, and being as respectful and religious as she is
clever and courteous, she is ever anxious to worship the
gods, and to enjoy the conversation of Brahmans. Such,
then, is the Padmini or Lotus woman.
Detailed descriptions then follow of the Chitrini or Art
woman; the Shankhini or Conch woman, and the Hastini
or Elephant woman, their days of enjoyment, their various
seats of passion, the manner in which they should be
manipulated and treated in sexual intercourse, along with
the characteristics of the men and women of the various
countries in Hindostan. The details are so numerous, and
the subjects so seriously dealt with, and at such length,
that neither time nor space will permit of their being given
here.
One work in the English language is somewhat similar
to these works of the Hindoos. It is called ‘Kalogynomia:
or the Laws of Female Beauty’, being the elementary
principles of that science, by T. Bell, M.D., with twentyfour
plates, and printed in London in 1821.
It treats of Beauty, of Love, of Sexual Intercourse, of the
Laws regulating that Intercourse, of Monogamy and
Polygamy, of Prostitution, of Infidelity, ending with a
catalogue raisonnée of the defects of female beauty.
Other works in English also enter into great details of
private and domestic life: The Elements of Social Science,
or Physical, Sexual and Natural Religion, by a Doctor of
Medicine, London, 1880, and Every Woman’s Book, by
Dr Waters, 1826. To persons interested in the above
subjects these works will be found to contain such details
as have been seldom before published, and which ought
to be thoroughly understood by all philanthropists and
benefactors of society.
After a perusal of the Hindoo work, and of the English
books above mentioned, the reader will understand the
subject, at all events from a materialistic, realistic and
practical point of view. If all science is founded more or
less on a stratum of facts, there can be no harm in making
known to mankind generally certain matters intimately
connected with their private, domestic, and social life.
Alas! complete ignorance of them has unfortunately
wrecked many a man and many a woman, while a little
knowledge of a subject generally ignored by the masses
would have enabled numbers of people to have
understood many things which they believed to be quite
incomprehensible, or which were not thought worthy of
their consideration.

INTRODUCTION

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 accompanying manuscript is corrected by me after
comparing four different copies of the work. I had the
assistance of a Commentary called "Jayamangla" for
correcting the portion in the first five parts, but found
great difficulty in correcting the remaining portion,
because, with the exception of one copy thereof which
was tolerably correct, all the other copies I had were far
too incorrect. However, I took that portion as correct in
which the majority of the copies agreed with each other.’
The ‘Aphorisms on Love’ by Vatsyayana contain about
one thousand two hundred and fifty slokas or verses, and
are divided into parts, parts into chapters, and chapters
into paragraphs. The whole consists of seven parts, thirtysix
chapters, and sixty-four paragraphs. Hardly anything
is known about the author. His real name is supposed to
be Mallinaga or Mrillana, Vatsyayana being his family
name. At the close of the work this is what he writes about
himself:
‘After reading and considering the works of Babhravya
and other ancient authors, and thinking over the meaning
of the rules given by them, this treatise was composed,
according to the precepts of the Holy Writ, for the benefit
of the world, by Vatsyayana, while leading the life of a
religious student at Benares, and wholly engaged in the
contemplation of the Deity. This work is not to be used
merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires. A
person acquainted with the true principles of this science,
who preserves his Dharma (virtue or religious merit), his
Artha (worldly wealth) and his Kama (pleasure or sensual
gratification), and who has regard to the customs of the
people, is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses. In
short, an intelligent and knowing person attending to
Dharma and Artha and also to Kama, without becoming
the slave of his passions, will obtain success in everything
that he may do.’
It is impossible to fix the exact date either of the life of
Vatsyayana or of his work. It is supposed that he must
have lived between the first and sixth century of the
Christian era, on the following grounds. He mentions that
Satakarni Satavahana, a king of Kuntal, killed Malayevati
his wife with an instrument called kartari by striking her
in the passion of love, and Vatsya quotes this case to warn
people of the danger arising from some old customs of
striking women when under the influence of this passion.
Now this king of Kuntal is believed to have lived and
reigned during the first century A.D., and consequently
Vatsya must have lived after him. On the other hand,
Virahamihira, in the eighteenth chapter of his
‘Brihatsanhita’, treats of the science of love, and appears
to have borrowed largely from Vatsyayana on the subject.
Now Virahamihira is said to have lived during the sixth
century A.D., and as Vatsya must have written his works
previously, therefore not earlier than the first century
A.D., and not later than the sixth century A.D., must be
considered as the approximate date of his existence.
On the text of the ‘Aphorisms on Love’, by Vatsyayana,
only two commentaries have been found. One called
‘Jayamangla’ or ‘Sutrabashya’, and the other ‘Sutra vritti’.
The date of the ‘Jayamangla’ is fixed between the tenth
and thirteenth century A.D., because while treating of the
sixty-four arts an example is taken from the
‘Kavyaprakasha’ which was written about the tenth
century A.D. Again, the copy of the commentary procured
was evidently a transcript of a manuscript which once had
a place in the library of a Chaulukyan king named
Vishaladeva, a fact elicited from the following sentence at
the end of it.
‘Here ends the part relating to the art of love in the
commentary on the "Vatsyayana Kama Sutra", a copy
from the library of the king of kings, Vishaladeva, who
was a powerful hero, as it were a second Arjuna, and head
jewel of the Chaulukya family.’
Now it is well known that this king ruled in Guzerat
from 1244 to 1262 A.D., and founded a city called
Visalnagur. The date, therefore, of the commentary is
taken to be not earlier than the tenth and not later than the
thirteenth century. The author of it is supposed to be one
Yashodhara, the name given him by his preceptor being
Indrapada.
He seems to have written it during the time of affliction
caused by his separation from a clever and shrewd
woman, at least that is what lie himself says at the end of
each chapter.
It is presumed that he called his work after the name of
his absent mistress, or the word may have some
connection with the meaning of her name.
This commentary was most useful in explaining the true
meaning of Vatsyayana, for the commentator appears to
have had a considerable knowledge of the times of the
older author, and gives in some places very minute
information. This cannot be said of the other commentary,
called ‘Sutra vritti’, which was written about A.D. 1789,
by Narsing Shastri, a pupil of a Sarveshwar Shastri; the
latter was a descendant of Bhaskur, and so also was our
author, for at the conclusion of every part he calls himself
Bhaskur Narsing Shastri. He was induced to write the
work by order of the learned Raja Vrijalala, while he was
residing in Benares, but as to the merits of this
commentary it does not deserve much commendation. In
many cases the writer does not appear to have understood
the meaning of the original author, and has changed the
text in many places to fit in with his own explanations.
A complete translation of the original work now
follows. It has been prepared in complete accordance with
the text of the manuscript, and is given, without further
comments, as made from it.