The Ways of the Kama Sutra

16.01.2010 | By: Z. J.

We've all heard of the Kama Sutra, but people rarely know what’s actually written in it. Don’t miss some interesting information.

The knowledge of the Kama Sutra was transmitted from experienced women to the younger ones.

The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian text in verses concerned with the rules of sexuality or pleasure (Kama means sexual or sensual pleasure, while Sutra means laws or rules). It was written in the 4th century BC by the Indian scholar Vatsyayana. Many Indian scholars had studied Kama before him without separating it from other areas in our life: Dharma – ethical and religious obligations, and Artha – the gaining of material goods. Only a person who doesn’t neglect any of these goals is happy and fulfilled. Despite the puritan “re-education” by English colonisers, most Indians consider Kama to be holiness, beauty and pleasure.

Vatsyayana is still read by virgins in order to get ready for marriage

In the past, the knowledge of the Kama Sutra was transmitted from experienced women to younger ones. In addition, a woman had to be good at 64 other types of knowledge, which included several forms of art, doing your makeup, architecture, carpentry, fencing, cock fighting, fortune-telling and sorcery.

Vatsyayana is still read by virgins in preparation for marriage.

The mind and the body aren’t in contradiction

India is considered a very “spiritual” country, but it has the richest tradition in expert erotic literature, which opposes the Western belief that the body and mind are separate. The Indians believe the mind to be connected to the body and that there’s no chance of these two areas being in contradiction. The mind and the body are two ingredients of the ideal whole. Kama is as necessary as food for our health and well-being.

The discussions about the Kama Sutra go as far back as the Vedic era, i.e. the second millennium BC. Indian authors draw an atlas of the female body and its erogenous zones, they described several types of the female temperament, and they defined the monthly cycle of female moods and the ups and downs of their sexual drive.