The Mare's Trap: Nature and Culture in the Kamasutra might come as a shocker to the "moral brigade" at work in India. The book, a re-telling of the Kamasutra by Wendy Doniger, explicates how ancient India appreciated eroticism and its progressive outlook on gender and female sexuality.
Doniger, whose first book, 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' sparked a row last year, contends in her new book that Kama (desire) is as old as Hinduism and the earliest Hindu text the Rig Veda revels in the language of pleasure and fertility.
kamasutra book in kannada
The author also seeks to establish the Kamasutra, the world's most famous text of erotic love, as a landmark of India's secular literature. Dispelling popular notions that Kamasutra is all about improbable positions, she argues that the book is about the art of living, about finding a partner, maintaining power in a marriage and committing adultery.
Doniger says that despite being a highly-sophisticated book, Kamasutra is not getting the attention it deserves - sometimes taken as a matter of national shame rather than pride - and in the rest of the world it is a source of amused amazement.
Doniger also throws light on how Kamasutra has heavily borrowed from Kautilya's Arthashastra, a book on statecraft. She also describes how both the books mostly differ with Manu's Dharmashastra, which coined castes and defined women as inferior to men.
Kamasutra means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
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The main misapprehensions, which a modern human may have concerning the sense and content of the Kamasutra, are based on the initial impression experienced by the Europeans and provoked by a translation of the book in the end of XIX century.
If we speak about life and destiny of Vatsyayana Mallanaga we may say that there is almost nothing about this person in the history. The only thing we know is that they suppose that by his origin he was from the South-West India and lived in the city of Khajuraho (that is where we can find amazing temples decorated with erotic sculptures) in the III-V century of Common Era in the times of ruling of Gupts dynasty (it is indicated by the events of those times described in the book). It is right with the ruling of the dynasty that is associated the dawn of the Indian literature and architecture. So, creation of the Kama Sutra is attributed right to this period.
Vatsyayana Mallanaga did not intend to write any pornographic book about sex. Vise versa, he planned and accomplished a serious work, a study about how to act to reach sensual happiness, i.e. Kama. The book describes everything that is necessary to know for reaching such happiness. Here, physical love is compared with scientific perception, perception of the world and themselves. Sexual relationships are a part of any human life, that is a part of experience and wisdom, and when you develop in this direction, it is important and it is absolutely non shameful. Unfortunately, such an approach to this creation is not developed among our contemporaries. Not many people can penetrate to the depth of meanings of this ancient study.
Initially, the Kamasutra was not destined for wide masses of the Indian population. It was a love guide for the highest casts of the population, that is for educated people, as it systemized and represented right their life in all its extends. It was also allowed to be studied by hetaera and daughters of the senior ranks. If wives, in this case only by permission of husbands. So, only a little part of the whole population had access to the knowledge, exposed in the book. Here are enlighten the question of law, sociology, manners of Indians from different parts of the country, art, love etiquette, culture. We should understand that in India of that time all the created texts executed pedagogical function, it means that they taught, instructed, educated. But after some time, approximately 300 years, the book became more ease of access for common people and most of those who wished could learn the high art of love.
He understood that this book could not be any more possession of only India; the whole world needed to know about it. During another 10 years, Richard Burton was carrying the sketches of the very first Kamasutra, which Europe was just about to learn. Only in 1871 the speed of his travelling became lower that allowed him to collect his notices which he had collected during dozens of years, to take a pen to expose on a sheet of paper everything that he had learnt about the book during many years. And this became a start point of acquaintance of Europe and then of the whole world with the Kamasutra.
After that, since 1970 there started an active porn industry, which also caught up and started to develop actively brand of the Kamasutra in the whole world, making different films and educational manuals on sex positions. As a result, among many people, name of the book is associated exclusively with sex positions. Through the years, popularity of the book was growing as well as demand for educative literature about sex. Thus the Kama Sutra is known nowadays.
What should a sex be consisted of. The Kamasutra is a tool with the help of which sex may turn out to have a sacramental sense, including our feelings and perception aimed at getting the most enjoyment. Thus, every feature, e.g. scents, surrounding, lightening etc, are to be full of intimacy, hinting at forthcoming act of love. A couple should get rid of everything out of their room, leaving behind all the worries. Here, there is enough room only for their mind, soul and body: only he and she do matter now. The prelude, or a sexual game, has to be in the highlight of such a ritual. Remaining an integral part of the game, while prelude, one is able to express all the emotions and love to which the author of the book pays great attention. The sex itself, actually, is the high point of this game. Even in some cases, there is no need for having sex. 2ff7e9595c
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