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In the Kama Sutra, sex positions show up in just one of its seven books
People tend to think "Kama Sutra = sex position book." In fact it's a guide to "the art of living for pleasure," covering everything from finding a lover to marriage, affairs, the courtesan trade and love potions, and the positions appear only in Book 2.
MaiHimeka-san! The Kama Sutra is that "sex position encyclopedia" with like a hundred dirty positions, right!? I totally know this!
Himeka...Sigh. It doesn't have a hundred, and it's no encyclopedia. The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian book in Sanskrit, probably written in northern India in the second half of the 3rd century. "Kama" means pleasure, desire and love, and a "sutra" is a treatise of teachings. Its subject isn't just sex, it's the whole art of living for pleasure.
MaiOoh! So the guy who wrote it was, um... Whatsyayana, right!?
HimekaVatsyayana! Don't turn him into a what's-his-name! ...Vatsyayana Mallanaga. Though honestly, almost nothing is known about the man. And by his own account, the book is a distillation of works by earlier authors that are now lost.
HimekaThe whole thing is seven books and 64 sections. Book 1 opens by placing kama as one of the three aims of life. The other two are dharma, religion and law, and artha, wealth and power. And the positions? They only show up in Book 2.
MaiWait, that's it!? Then what's in all the other books!?
HimekaFinding a partner and marriage, how a wife runs the household, adultery, business tips for courtesans. And the last one, Book 7, is love potions and charms. Even Book 2 doesn't jump straight to positions. First it lists 12 embraces, 17 kisses, 16 kinds of scratches and bites... and only then come the 17 positions. The book itself is built like foreplay.
MaiBook 7 sounds awesome! I'm gonna brew a love potion and make you weak in the knees, Himeka-san! What do I mix in!?
HimekaI am NOT telling you!! ...Well, it does have a recipe where a man coats a flute in a brew of mint, wild ginger and so on, and any woman who hears him play falls into his power. But at the very end, the author makes a point of warning that "there's a text for it" doesn't justify doing it.
HimekaThe West got hooked through the 1883 English translation. It bore Richard Burton's name, though others reportedly did the translating. Britain's Obscene Publications Act only covered books sold to the public, so 250 private copies went out via the "Hindoo Kama Shastra Society," members: Burton and one friend. Then it got pirated like crazy, becoming one of the most pirated books in history.
MaiA secret club with two members!? So cool! Let's start one, Himeka-san! The Kama Suit-ra Society! Matching suits and everything!
HimekaWe are NOT starting a club!! And nobody's wearing suits!! ...Hmph. People think it's a position book because from the 20th century on, the positions got cut out and passed around on their own. And you, stop judging a book by its title.
Himeka's summary
- The Kama Sutra is an ancient Sanskrit book by Vatsyayana Mallanaga, thought to date from late-3rd-century northern India. Its subject is pleasure (kama) in general, sex included, and it ranks kama among the three aims of life with dharma (religion, law) and artha (wealth, power).
- It has 7 books and 64 sections. The positions are in Book 2, where 17 positions come after 12 embraces, 17 kisses and more. The other books cover finding a partner and marriage, running a household, adultery, courtesans and love potions.
- The famous English translation came out in 1883 under Richard Burton's name, as 250 copies from the two-member "Hindoo Kama Shastra Society." This dodged the Obscene Publications Act, which covered books sold to the public, and the book was later pirated on a huge scale.
Sources
General trivia only. For anything that needs a medical call, talk to a doctor. All characters are adults.
Translated from the Japanese original. Sources are unchanged.