Introduction to Kama Sutra
March 17, 2011
Source: Anne Hoper’s Kama Sutra
In the ’60s and 70’s there seemed to be dozens of version of the Kama Sutra, All were removed from my own lifestyle, and I didn,t feel there was much I could relate to it the text. Although I’m fascinated by human sexual nature, I’m not very interested in sex practiced as a style of gymnastics. I would defend freedom for the aficionado of sophisticated sexual positions. but I’ve never felt that athletic poses had much to do with my own sex life. So it was with reluctance that I sat down and began to read a copy of the Burton and Arbuthnot translation, which was first published int 1883 and which I have quoted extensively in this book. To my surprise, I got far more out of the experience than I’d thought possible. I began to understand the sense of humor behind some of the more exotic poses and realized that many of the poses were not just about sex -Â they were also about eh union of body and mind. Salome of the sexual poses in the Kama Sutra are yoga positions, and the goal of yoga is to create mental and physical harmony. The Kama Sutra makes sense in our sophisticated world in that we still strive for the experiences of ecstasy.
The Kama Sutra and its associated texts, the Anaga Ranga, The Perfumed Garden, and the Tao, are not as baldly sexual as we might assume. There is a connection between these ancient writings and life in the 20th century. It’s a connection that centers on feelings. Although it is possible for us to interact sexually with many people, unless we have also cultivated some love and warmth toward the person who is arousing us, we won’t get near the real goal of kama. The concept of kama involves the “enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five sense of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, and smelling, assisted b the mind together with the soul.” As a concept, kama is just as relevant to us now as it was to the Indians in around AD 400.
The Kama Sutra may have been produced at any time between AD 100 and AD 400, and it was written in an Indian that no longer exists. In those days, the ideal citizen cultivated an ideal life. He surrounded himself with friends, mad love as it were an art form, at and drank well, was interested in painting and music, and regarded himself as fair lord and master.
The Kama Sutra was written fro the nobility of ancient India, by a nobleman. Vatsyayana thought of life as consisting of Dharma, artha, and kama. Dharma was the acquisition of religious merit; Artha was the acquisition of wealth; and Kama was the acquisition of love or sensual pleasure. These ideals are not that dissimilar from the codes we live by today. Although we aren’t so focused on religious merit any more, we do pursue self-knowledge and personal growth; most of us would like to have enough money to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle; and most of us would like to be involved in a loving sexual relationship. The main difference is that the world today is far more egalitarian than it was in the time of Vatsyayana. The Kama Sutra was intended as a sort of businessman’s textbook-only the subject matter is not money, but sex.
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It was aimed at men because women had very low status then. That isn’t to say that woman’s needs are if nored in the text-they aren’t. Pages of detail are aimed purely at exciting the female partner. The instructions concerning female stimulation are explicit. The “work of a man” includes kissing, pressing, stoking, and scratching, and, if a woman should fail to be satisfied by the act of intercourse, Vatsyayana suggest, “the man should rub the yoni [vulva\ of the woman with his hand.” He even advocate specific sexual positions to suit the sexual match of a couple “High” congress (see the position of the wife of indra) permits the maximum penetration when a man with a small lingam or linga (penis)makes love to a woman who has a deep vagina. “Low” congress (see The Twining Position) allows easy penetration for a man with a large penis and woman a small vagina.
Although the Kama Sutra tends to be thought of as a book about sex, it is also a book about manners, conduct, and the arts that a cultivated individual was meant to practice. Although some of the things in the original manuscript would be thought o fas peculiar in modern times (the art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak, for instance), there are many sensual arts, such as the use of perfumes, music, and foods, which all translate well into modern sexual practice.
In this version of the Kama Surta I have not only selected the parts of the originial text that are still relevant; I have also kept some chunks of 2,000-year-old information because they are in facinating contrast to the lives we lead today. i have made a point of commenting on aspects of age-old sexual positions, now that we know exactly why we find some of them more stimulating thatn other. I have also placed special emphasis on the pressure points most likely to ifve us pleasure. In the past 40 years, we have carried out a great deal of research ionto human sexuality many researchers and sexologis , such as Master and Johnson, Kinsey, and Shere Hite, have documented a wide range of sexual activity, from masturbation to foreplay and intercourse.
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