Kama SutraThe Kama Sutra is the most celebrated book on lovemaking ever written. Initially written by an Indian sage sometime between the 4th century BC and the 1st century AD, it was not translated into English until the 1880's, and has only been available to the common reader since the 1960's. Not much is known about the writer of the Kama Sutra. He belonged to the Vatsyayana sept, and his own name was Mallanaga. He embarked on the book as he was nearing the end of his life, and looked upon the writing of it as part of his religious duties. It is a learned and carefully researched work, semi-scientific and objective, and is itself founded on the writings of previous sages.
The Kama Sutra was written at a time when the refined Hindu was expected to obtain three values. Dharma, or religious merit, Artha, or worldly wealth and Kama, the science of pleasure and love. Vatsyayana stresses that this work is not to be used just as an instrument for fulfilling our desires. However, it became, over the years, an essential part of the readings of thousands of Indians, and unlike other writers who wrote solely for men, Vatsyayana's timeless book was used to train young brides before their weddings. We owe a good deal to the Victorian explorer and scholar Richard Burton and his associate Foster Arbuthnot, who took great pains to decode the primary Sanskrit. In the face of opposition and risking prosecution, they published it in 1883 under the fictitious imprint The Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares. It was distributed, with other translations of eastern texts such as the Ananha Ranga, The Perfumed Garden and The Arabian Nights, among an elite group of people who were interested in the behaviour and customs of the orient, although undoubtedly it was also used as a guidebook for Victorian husbands. Since it was discovered, the Kama Sutra has revolutionized the western approach to Indian culture, showing as it does how central and natural sex was to Indian thought. The Sanskrit term Kama meant sensual gratification, pleasure, love, while Sutra meant compressed expressions, aphorisms . But Kama is far more than merely erotic pleasure. It encompasses all sensory pleasures. Thus silken clothes, perfumes, good food, music and painting all came within Kama's realm. When Vatsyayana named his treatise Kama Sutra, he meant to lay down standards for the gratification of all these pleasures. So he describes how the house of the ideal citizen is to be furnished, built and provisioned. Which sweet scented plants should be grown in the gardens. With which paintings and sculptures the rooms should be decorated, which incenses should perfume the air and which music should attend the meetings of lovers. In a very real sense, sex was thought of by the Hindus not only natural and necessary, but virtually sacramental - the human counterpart of the miracle of creation. Erotic carvings and statues all over India testify to the fact that it was a subject to be approached with reverence and objectivity, rather than as something obscene and secret. The Kama sutra in its entirety is a lengthy work and consists not only of explicit advice on the sexual act itself - in the part of the manuscript known as the 64 - but also lays down instructions on household management, courtship, education, marriage, medicine, and a variety of accomplishments cultured women and men needed to acquire in order to attract the opposite sex. Article based on text taken from Thorsons First Directions Kama Sutra. Get Free Web Site Content From ArticleBuilder.net
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