The Kama Sutra   by Vatsyayana

Spring 2004 to Spring 2005     Found on the internet, best presented at http://www.kamasutra-sex.org/text/title.htm
(But Project Gutenburg should also have a good copy of it.)

Well, it's an interesting book, which I have meant to look at for years. I ended up getting more or less what I was looking for in it. And one must NOT have the wrong idea about this: It is NOT a guide book to sexual activities, and lust. It is about relationships, and all the interactions between men and women, from the clothes they wear, to how to present a nice dinner, to how to be a good husband or wife, to suggestions for makeup. It was very well put in the conclusion of this website: The book is "a treatise on men and women, their mutual relationship, and connection with each other."

It is true, that sensuality Is one way that men and women connect, and this Is dealt with, (such as in the enumeration of the eight different ways of kissing.) But it must be understood that it is done... in a most scientific, and factual manner.

One common misconception I run into, when I tell people that the Kama Sutra is one of the books I'm reading at the moment, is that they ask how good the pictures are. Well... What Pictures??? There were no pictures at all! Surely, through the centuries, many pictures have been made, depicting various sexual arts, but I really don't believe that there were any originally included with this text.

Anyhow, enough defending myself against the people I immagine being shocked to find this on my webpage, if they still don't believe that it's a sinless book, then they can remain in their ignorance of the truth.

For my personal interest, I find the highest value of this book to be it's cultural insight; It's a perfect record of ancient India, and it's social culture. It tells of how the households were structured, and how the thoughts were of the ideal love, and the ways of falling in love, and the ways of pursuing the one you love. There's also still a good portion of the text that applies to present society as well. (Such as the different types of men and women, and how they fit, or don't fit together in relationships.)

Anyhow, I most enjoyed it from the anthropologistic side.

One point that caught my eye, and had me wondering at it's truth, and accuracy, was as follows:
for a man thinks, `this woman is united with me', and a woman thinks, `I am united with this man'. Now, I'm not sure if I believe the truth in this, or if I think it used to be true, in societies more male dominated. Or... is it truly a different way of looking at the pair?

Well, Perhaps some explanation is also needed about my taking about 12 months to finish reading this work: It goes like this... I got it off the internet, but I first got it from a different site, in which you had to be online to read it, and had a bad layout. Then the summer came, and I was without my computer for about four months. Then there were so many other books I had. That, and the fact that this Sutra was so... dry, that I had to be in a truly studios mind to read it. (As opposed to my "Entertain me!" moods, when I lust after SF, or my "Literary" moods, when I want classic Literature.)

So, it's a book that deals somewhat with sex, and much more with social nuances, and perhaps gender roles in society. It can be an educational read.

Personally, I liked it.

Ah! And there's a bit of poetry in Part IV, chapter 4, that I think seems very lovely, (if you understand French.)

Quand on a juré le plus profond hommage,
Voulez vous qu'infidèle on change de langage;
Vous seul captivez mon esprit et mon coeur
Que je puisse dans vos bras seuls goûter le bonheur;
Je voudrais, mais en vain, que mon coeur en délire
Couche oû ce papier n'oserait vous dire.
Avec soin, de ces vers lisez leurs premiers mots,
Vous verrez quel remède il faut à tous mes maux