Since very ancient times, sometimes
going back as far as what we term prehistory, Indian thinkers have asked
themselves questions about the nature of the world and the position of man in
creation. They considered matter as being formed of atoms, cells constituted by
energetic elements, organized according to mathematical formulas that define
the various elements under relatively stable and permanent forms. Life presents
a different problem. Being based on formulas, codes defining the peculiarities
of the various species, it only exists by transmitting itself through temporary
links. The species is permanent, but each link has only a limited existence.
Once it has transmitted the code that defines its nature, it is itself
destroyed. During its brief existence, each link needs, for its own subsistence
and self-transmission, to consume energy, to nourish and protect itself.
Furthermore, existing only as a species, beings form interdependent communities
and must observe rules of social behavior. They therefore possess obligations —
ethics — that form part of their nature. This is particularly important for the
human species.
Life thus necessitates three kinds of
activity: to assure its survival, its means of existence, and its nourishment;
to realize its reproduction according to forms of activity generally connected
with sexuality; and, lastly, to establish rules of behavior that allow
different individuals to perform their roles within the framework of the
species. In human society, this is represented as three necessities, three aims
of life: material goods (artha) assure survival; erotic practice (kama) assures
the transmission of life; and rules of behavior, a moral nature (dharma),
assure the cohesion and duration of the species. An ethical or social nature
forms part of the genetic code of the species whose collective consciousness
functions as it does in the individual. The various organs play a different,
although coordinated, role. This can be easily observed in animal society, and
in particular among insects.
The various members of society have
distinct roles, and the ethical duties of individuals differ according to their
function. This is what is known as svadharma, the ethical duty peculiar to each
individual. In Hindu society, function is considered in most cases as being
hereditary, whence the caste institution. Cases do exist, however, in which a
function is acquired. This problem is raised by Vàtsyàyana in connection with
the moral code, or dharma, as applied to prostitutes.
Vàtsyàyana considers that individual
ethics, meaning the accomplishing of one’s individual social duty, are
essential for success in the domain of prosperity and love. He mentions belief
in a future life as a kind of wager, whether as transmigration or heaven, but
on the whole sides with the materialists who, without denying the possibility,
deem it too problematical for consideration. The commentators, Yashodhara and
Devadatta Shastri, on the other hand, side with the believers.
A fourth aim represents perception of
the supernatural and the continued existence of certain acquirements of the
mind beyond life’s limits, and is called liberation (mokûa). This aspect is
contemplated by what is called religion, but remains a separate domain,
considered as peculiar to mankind, even though a perception of the supernatural
probably exists among other species.
As far as the necessities of life are
concerned, only the first three aims are therefore considered.
These aims are mentioned in the most
ancient texts, the Vedas, the Puranas, the Laws of Manu,
the Mahabharata, and so forth, but their practical definition is mainly
known through the codes established during what is called the period of the
Sutras which, according to Max Muller, runs from the birth of Buddha (500
Sebelum Masehi) to the accession of Ashoka (270 Sebelum Masehi).
Writing disappeared in India during
the second millennium before our era, as a result of the Aryan invasions, and
only reappeared toward the eighth century Sebelum Masehi, in new forms — first
Brahmi, which was of Phoenician origin, followed in the seventh century by
Kharoshti, of Aramaean origin. Although their antiquity is unquestioned, the Vedas
as well as all the other forms of ancient knowledge were only put into written
form starting from this period. Knowledge, which had been previously
transmitted orally, was then codified in Sanskrit, which had become the
instrument of culture. It is not certain whether even Panini’s famous grammar
was originally a written text. Thus it was that, starting from the seventh
century Sebelum Masehi, the basic texts concerning the aims of life were
transcribed in the Artha Úàstra, Dharma Úàstra, arid Kàma Úàstra.
The Predecessors of
Vàtsyàyana
The first formulation of the Kàma
Úàstra, or rules of love, is attributed to Nandi, Shiva’s companion.
During the eighth century Sebelum
Masehi, Shvetaketu, son of Uddalaka, undertook the summary of Nandi’s work. The
date is known, since Uddalaki and Shvetaketu are the protagonists of the Brihat
Aranyaka Upaniûad and Chandogya Upaniûad, which are usually dated to
this period and contain important passages connected with erotic science.
A man of letters called Babhru,
together with his sons or disciples, known as the Babhravya, made an important
written work, summarizing the too vast work of Shvetaketu. The Babhravya came
originally from Panchala, a region located between the Ganges and the Yamuna,
to the south of present-day Delhi, but most probably lived in the city of
Pàtaliputra, the great center of the kingdom of Chandragupta, which resisted
Alexander’s invasion in the fourth century and became the seat of the Ashoka
empire a century later.
Between the third and first centuries
Sebelum Masehi, several authors took up parts of the Babhravya work in various
treatises. The said authors are Charayana, Suvarnanabha, Ghotakamukha,
Gonardiya, Gonikaputra, and more especially Dattaka who, with the aid of a
famous courtesan of Pàtaliputra, composed a work on courtesans which Vàtsyàyana
reproduces almost entirely.
The text of Suvarnanabha must date
from the first century Sebelum Masehi, since it mentions a king of Kuntala (to
the south of Pàtaliputra), named Shàtakarni Shàtavàhana, who reigned at this
time and who killed his wife accidentally in the course of sadistic practices.
On the other hand, Yashodhara, at the
beginning of his commentary, attributes the origin of erotic science to
Mallanaga, the “prophet of the Asuras” (the ancient gods), meaning to
prehistoric times. Nandi, Shiva’s companion, is then said to have transcribed
it for mankind today. The attribution of the first name Mallanaga to Vàtsyàyana
is due to the confusion of his role as editor of the Kàma Sùtra with
that of the mythical creator of erotic science.
The Author of the
Kàma Sùtra
Vàtsyàyana appears to have been a
Bràhmaóa and a great man of letters, residing in the city of Pàtaliputra around
the fourth century Masehi, at a time of widespread cultural effervescence known
as the Gupta period. The fact that Varaha Mihira in his Brihad Saýhità,
dating from the sixth century, draws his inspiration from the Kàma Sùtra,
and the mention of King Shàtakarni Shàtavàhana, who lived in the first century
Sebelum Masehi, determines the limits for the possible dates of the Kàma
Sùtra.
According to Vàtsyàyana, the various
works belonging to the Kàma Úàstra had become difficult to access. For
this reason, he undertook to collect them and summarize them in his Kàma
Sùtra, which thus became the classic work on the subject.
It was while staying in the city of
Benares for purposes of religious study that he managed to collect the works
from which he drew his inspiration and from which he quotes important passages.
The Kàma Sùtra thus describes the customs of the Maurya period (fourth
century Sebelum Masehi), reviewed during the Gupta period (fourth century
Masehi). The fact that the Kàma Sùtra is a compilation of works of the
Maurya period explains the similarities in composition and style with the Artha
Úàstra of Kautilya, the minister of Chandragupta, as well as the numerous
references to this work.
The Kàma Sùtra does not claim
to be an original work, but a compilation. Vàtsyàyana states, on the other
hand, that he himself had checked through personal experience the practices he
describes.
The Kàma Sùtra is not a
pornographic work. It is merely an impartial and systematic study of one of the
essential aspects of existence. First and foremost, it is a picture of the art
of living for the civilized and refined citizen, completing in the sphere of
love, eroticism, and the pleasures of life, those parallel treatises of
politics and economy and ethics, the Artha Úàstra and Dharma Úàstra,
to which it makes constant reference.
Eroticism is firstly a search for
pleasure, and the goal of the techniques of love is to attain a paroxysm
considered by the Upanishads as a perception of the divine state, which
is infinite delight. The refinements of love and the pleasures that include
music and other arts are only possible in a prosperous civilization, which is
why the Kàma Úàstra, the art of love, is linked to the Artha Úàstra,
the rules of prosperity and the art of making money. Poverty is not a virtue.
According to Vàtsyàyana, indeed, it is an obstacle, not only to pleasure, but
also to ethics and virtue. Morality is a luxury which very poor people can
rarely afford.
Tradition and Commentaries
As is the custom in all Hindu
technical works, including the dictionary, grammar, and scientific treatises,
the text of the Kàma Sùtra is written in a condensed, versified form
(sutra), meant to be memorized with explanations provided by a teacher. The
commentaries are thus an integral part of the teaching. Those transcribed at
any given period are not therefore new interpretations, but represent
tradition, without which the text would be incomplete. The Kàma Úàstra
is a typical example of this. Considered as a supplementary science to
religious tradition, it forms part of the traditional teaching to be studied by
children and adolescents.
The texts that have come down to us,
often purely by chance, are never presented as original works. Nevertheless, it
is sometimes possible, according to certain indications, to have an approximate
idea of the period in which they were composed or edited. The Kàma Sùtra, its
sources and commentaries, represent a continuous tradition. Vàtsyàyana declares
that he only quotes and condenses previous works, and modestly speaks of
himself in the third person, “Vatsyayana’s opinion is that . . . ,” when he
adds an opinion of his own.
Around the twelfth century, at the
time when the Shaivite renewal gave rise to a considerable development in
sacred architecture, of which the temples of Khajuraho with their innumerable
erotic sculptures are the best-known example, a great scholar, Yashodhara,
wrote the highly important commentary on Vatsyayana’s text, called the Jayamangala,
which is included here. The text of Yashodhara’s commentary, rendered in
italics in the text, does not present a new interpretation, but is an integral
part of tradition. The same is true for the modern Hindi commentary by
Devadatta Shastri, (rendered in roman type in the text), whose quotations from
parallel sources earlier or later than Vatsyayana’s Kàma Sùtra represent
a precious contribution to our knowledge of the concepts of eroticism.
Shastri’s modern commentary shows the continuity of concept and teaching of the
Kàma Sùtra down to our own times.
Other Sanskrit commentaries also
exist, but those which have come down to us are later and less important, such
as the Sutra Vritti by Narsingha Shastri in the eighteenth century.
It would clearly be possible to
consider only Vatsyayana’s condensed text, as has already been done, and
translate it, despite its difficulty and the problems raised by the
interpretation of technical terms. In order to reach an exact interpretation of
the Hindu concept of the art of love, however, it cannot be separated from its
commentaries and its teaching tradition.
Considered as one of the supplementary
texts to the sacred books of Hinduism, the Kàma Sùtra retains a
surprising topicality. It is a breviary of love valid for all times and places.
The Translation
The full translation of the
commentaries inevitably gives rise to repetition, while deference to the text
causes a stylistic maladroitness for which I apologize. I have, first and
foremost, sought not to transpose it into modern language and run the risk of
detracting from the authors’ thought in a text that is considered sacred.
Terminology often presents problems,
since dictionaries do not give the meaning of technical terms, thus adding
confusion. Thus, the word yoga means “sexual intercourse,” tantra
means “technique,” upanishad “occult and magical practices.” For svairim
(lesbians), the dictionary gives “corrupt woman,” neither does it give the
meaning of adhorata “anal coition,” and so forth.
The terminology is often allusive and
humorous: When the lesbian kisses her partner’s goatee and, seizing her chin,
slips her finger in the slit, the pubis is clearly meant; the instrument,
yantra, or the phallus, linga, in some places signify the male organ and
sometimes the dildo; and some of the rather tedious ways of enumerating all the
situations possible are more an exercise in logic for the student than true
descriptions.
Society
Society is the hierarchical society of
India, with its castes — Bràhmaóa, warrior - princes, merchants, monks, and
workers’ corporations — which collaborate without any problem. Marriage and
procreation between different social groups is not recommended in the
children’s interests, although amorous relations are very free. Buddhist monks
are mentioned.
The Citizen
The work is essentially addressed to
the citizen (nagaraka), meaning a wealthy, cultivated bourgeois male who is an
art-lover and either a merchant or civil servant living in a large city.
The citizen is first and foremost a
merchant or landed proprietor, awaiting the arrival of ships laden with goods,
or the harvest of his crops. The arts play an important role in his life,
especially music, dancing, painting, the theater, and literature. The list of
arts given in the Kàma Sùtra has often been reproduced in other works.
Although erotic techniques concern all
men, the refinements of the art of love are only possible if one possesses a
pleasant dwelling with comfortable beds, bathrooms, reception rooms, gardens,
flowers, and scents.
The citizen was not a vegetarian. He
ate all kinds of meat and drank wine and strong spirits whether at receptions
or while making love. A beverage based on Indian hemp, nowadays called bhamg,
was also widely used.
The City
For Vàtsyàyana, as for his predecessors,
the “great city” is Patallliputra, an immense town and river port, situated on
the Ganges between Benares and Calcutta. It could be compared to present-day
Calcutta, itself a nver port and great commercial and cultural center.
The town still exists and has retained
its popular name Patna, an abbreviation of Pàtaliputra Nàgara, but the sinking
of the water level has reduced its role as a port. In Vatsyayana’s day, sea
transport extended to Southeast Asia, Africa, and even Europe. At that time,
the Romans had important entrepots in the south of India. Ptolemy’s geography
mentions the main cities of the Indian subcontinent.
The Kàma Sùtra describes the
customs of various regions of India, whose territory included Gandhara
(present-day Afghanistan) and Bactria (Tadjikistan).
Women
At the time of the Bàbhravyas, as in
Vatsyayana’s own time, women enjoyed great freedom. The Kàma Sùtra
obviously describes the duties of the faithful wife attending solely to her
family and her household, but, at the same time, it also indicates all the ways
of seducing her and inviting her to deceive her husband. For form’s sake, it
cites the various kinds of marriage mentioned in the books of law, but
recommends the love-marriage, or gàndharva marriage, and explains how to seduce
the girl — who often appears to have been merely a child — with gifts of dolls’
and toys.
The remarriage of widows, later
forbidden, was accepted. Although polygamy was widespread, Vàtsyàyana extols
the advantages of having a single wife. It is, above all, in speaking of the
royal harem that he describes, not without humor, the sometimes wearisome side
of the sovereign’s obligation to satisfy numerous wives and deal with the
intrigues of the seraglio.
Suttee, the widow’s sacrifice on her
husband’s pyre, is only mentioned in the modern commentary.
Courtesans
Courtesans played an important role in
urban society. They were the ornaments of the city. Familiar with the arts, it
is through them that the refined techniques of music and dance were
transmitted, a role they continue to play even nowadays.
Some of the most famous female dancers
and musicians at the beginning of the twentieth century still belonged to this
corporation. The nobility and purity of style of the arts has seen a marked
decline since women of the rich bourgeoisie have begun to take their place in
the artistic world.
A remarkable picture of the life and
role of courtesans is given in Manimekhalai, a Tamil novel written by
the merchant-prince Shattan, a contemporary of Vatsyayana’s.
Courtesans could command a
considerable fee and made generous contributions to social and religious works,
such as the building of temples and pools for ritual baths.
During the Dattaka period, when the Artha
Úàstra was composed and from which Vàtsyàyana quotes, the fee for
prostitutes of lower rank was fixed by the government, and they paid taxes. In
Vatsyayana’s own time they were free to negotiate the price of their services.
The institution of the devadasi, female dancers attached to the temples, does
not appear and is not even referred to in Yashodhara’s commentary, although it
must have existed at his time.
It was as a result of the Shaivite
renewal between the ninth and fourteenth centuries that the great temples were
built. These were vast religious precincts comprising numerous sanctuaries,
pools for ablutions, booths supplying flowers, and other accessories necessary
for the rites, as well as a theater called the dance hall, in which plays of a
religious nature were given. Each temple possessed groups of dancers, forming
an important corps de ballet. Professional female dancers and musicians by
definition belonged to the social category of courtesans, whether or not they
sold their charms, a commerce which did not take place within the sacred
precinct.
The Muslim conquerors captured
hundreds of these women as booty of war and, later on, the British authorities,
with puritanical indignation, forbade the association of “prostitutes” with the
Hindus’ sacred places, to the great detriment of artistic tradition which,
secularized, still exists in the Bharata Natyam. I knew Bala Sarasvati, the
last of the great dancers belonging to that profession, very well. With her
unrivalled talent and without any accessories, she could, by her gestures,
evoke the beauty of a garden, the surprise of a flower opening out, the anguish
of a woman in love, a hero scaling a mountain. I also knew well Siddheshvari
Devi, the famous singer of Benares, who still lived in the special district of
the town. Both were incomparable artists, wholly dedicated to their art and
their inner vision, which they expressed by gesture and word, without any trace
of the vulgar winks and smiles to the audience that are too often a feature of
those artists belonging to the bourgeoisie who have succeeded them.
The association of prostitution with
the theatrical profession is not peculiar to India. In the West, dancers and
famous actresses were “kept” women, or else practised serial marriage. The
Ouled Nail dancers in North Africa belonged to a caste of courtesans.
Sacred prostitution has never existed
in India, even though temple dancers belonged to the caste of courtesans, whose
profession was dancing. Furthermore, the rare hierogamies of Vedic ritual did
not take place in the temples and public women were not used for the mystical
couplings of tantric rites except in modern times, as mentioned by Devadatta
Shastri’s commentary.
Troupes or male dancers also existed,
for the staging of religious legends. This tradition has survived in the Katha
Kali. I lived for a long period at the school created by the great poet
Vallathol in order to preserve the tradition of theater art, the aim of which
was to make known to the public the sacred legends concerning the gods and the
mighty deeds of the heroes. Moreover, in the spectacles known as Rama Lila and
Kåûóa LIla, all the roles are played by boys dressed as women.
Sexual Variants
Lesbianism is described in detail, as
well as the inversion of roles by a dominating female. Male homosexuality forms
an integral part of sexual life and various homosexual practices are described
in detail. Transvestite prostitutes play a role in public life, and their
presence at weddings and religious ceremonies was considered a symbol of good
luck down to our own times.
All sexual variations, including
relations with animals, are mentioned in the Kàma Sùtra and are
represented with great emphasis on the facades of great temples, such as those
at Khajuraho, as well as many others abandoned in the jungle, which I have been
able to visit.
Puritanism in Modern India
In the country of the Kàma Sùtra,
where amorous ecstasy is assimilated to mystic experience, to that perception
of the divine that is supreme enjoyment, the puritanism of modern India,
arising from Islamic and Anglo-Saxon prejudice, is all the more stupefying,
although it largely only concerns the managerial classes with English
education.
Mahatma Gandhi, educated in England,
sent squads of his disciples to smash the erotic representations on the
temples. It was the poet Rabindranath Tagore who managed to halt this
iconoclastic massacre. Pandit Nehru was irritated by my having photographed and
published the photographs of sculptures showing homosexual relations, dating
from the eleventh century, when he claimed that such vices in India were due to
Western influence. The blossoming of sexuality and all its variants has never
formerly been persecuted in India. It was only starting with the new penal code
promulgated by Nehru’s socialist government that, for the first time, article
377 punished “sexual relations against nature with a man, woman or animal,
whether the intercourse is anal or oral.”
The country of the Kàma Sùtra
had thus been relegated to the level of the most backward countries in the
sphere of liberty.
The intelligent traveler can, however,
outside official circles, find amorous adventures that show that the people of
India have forgotten nothing of the teachings of the Kàma Sùtra.
Erotic Sculpture and
Painting
Indian sculptures representing the
various sexual positions, group sex, homosexual practices, and relations with
animals are justly famous. Photographs of the same can be found in my book Erotisme
divinise. According to legend, they protect the temples from lightning.
Paintings representing intercourse
have always formed part of popular art. They are still to be seen today on the
earth walls of village homes, or on the pottery used for weddings for which
they are deemed of good omen.
At the same time, it seemed to me to
be a mistake to illustrate the Kàma Sùtra with pornographic drawings
from the Muslim period, and in particular with miniatures which, whatever their
artistic merits, evidence a state of mind that is completely foreign to that of
the sacred text.
Texts Quoted in the
Commentaries
The first commentary, the Jayamangala
by Yashodhara, over and above the works mentioned by Vàtsyàyana, also quotes
from:
The Manu Småti
The Nyaya Sutra by Gautama
The Markandeya Puràóa,
attributed to Bhargava
The Natya Úàstra by Bharata
The Niti Úàstra by Shukra.
The modern commentary in Hindi by
Devadatta Shastri takes into account a great number of works prior to the Kàma
Sùtra, starting with the Atharva Veda and the Upanishads
influenced by Shaivite tradition.
He also quotes from the Mahabharata,
the Puranas, the Natya Úàstra, the Nìti Úàstra and the
various works on eroticism sometimes edited later than the Kàma Sùtra,
but deriving from the same sources and showing numerous parallels, such as:
The Kuchumara Tantra
The Rati Rahasya by Kokkoka
The Panchashayaka or Dashashayaka
by Jyotirishvara
The Smara Pradlpika by
Gunakara, son of Vachaspati
The Rati Manjari by Jayadeva
The Rasa Manjari by Bhanudatta
The Ananga Ranga by
Kalyanamalla (around 1500)
The Kuttimmata by Damodara
Gupta.
The literary and historical works,
codes of ethics and politics mentioned are:
The Nagarsarvasva by Padmashri
The Ujjvala Nilamani by
Rupagoswami and its commentary by Jivagoswami
The Naishadiya Charita by
Harsha
The Brihad Saýhità by
Varahamihira
The Gita Govinda by Jayadeva
The Harsha Charita by Bana
The Malati Madhava by
Bhavabhuti
The Svapna Vasavadatta by Bhasa
The Mricchakatika by Shudraka
The Kadamban by Bana
The Sarasvati Kanthabharana
The Dashakumara Charita by
Dandin
The Sahitya Darpana, history of
literature
The Kavya Prakasha by Mammata
The Kala Vilasa by Kshemendra
The Lalita Vistara
The Shishupalavadha by Magha
The Kiratarjuna by Bharavi
The Shakuntala by Kalidasa
The Bhoja Prabandha
by Vallabha. 
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