Don't hear many people talk about this book anymore. There are variations of the translation out there in multitude, but this one I enjoy the most. This translation is very readable and can be recommended purely for the inclusion of the extensive included Jayamangala Sanskrit commentary. I always find this book interesting and not for the commonly thought reasons. Yes it is a book about sex, but it also a book that leads up to the act by discussing social climates, moods and behavior, psychological conundrums and mindset and energy. There are bold pictures here, showing positions and processes that are interesting as well, and yet the overall read drew my eye to the words, with the plates and pictures as a compliment, always. The author of the Smarapradipika was the poet Gunakara, the son of Vachaspati. His work comprised four hundred verses and dealt only briefly with the doctrines of love, dwelling more on other matters. Kama is a handsome youth who, armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows, tipped with flowers, pursues his quarry of young loves. His thirst for love is shared and dispensed with his wife, Rati Devi. Book 1 General Principles

It would also talk about how best to cheat on your spouse, and how you could tell if someone was cheating on you. When the man arrives, she gives him a love-gift, something that will arouse his love or erotic curiosity, saying, “This is for you alone, and no one else, to enjoy.” Get a bigger flute!" "Increase ur Size! 6" "Don’t walk with tail between your legs." "V|agr.a, C|a.li5, and Phen.term.|ne CHeep!!"Hardly anything is known about him, although it is believed that his disciples went on his instructions, on the request of the Hindu Kings in the Himalayan range to influence the hill tribals to give up the pagan cult of sacrifices. He is said to have created the legend of Tara among the hill tribes as a tantric goddess. Later as the worship spread to the east Garo hills,the goddess manifest of a 'yoni' goddess Kamakhya was created. His interest in human sexual behavior as a medium of attaining spirituality was recorded in his treatise Kama Sutra. That man over there . . . is a lover who fell madly in love with you at first sight. He has never been afflicted like this before, by anyone else, he is suffering terribly, burning up. It is quite possible that he will even die of this today. As Venus is the epitome of feminine beauty in Greek literature, the Hindus describe the padmini, or the lotus woman, as the perfect representation of the same.

Childhood is the time to acquire knowledge and other kinds of power, the prime of youth is for pleasure, and old age is for religion and release. The books follows a logical plan, which comprises of small treatises regarding specific aspects of the topic including the opinions of previous scholars and the author's agreement or disagreement with them. The work starts with an exhortation to the study of Kama, its benefits and its general nature. The book also includes treatises on the nature of man and woman, the nature of desire, the nature of union both carnal and spiritual, the nature of a wife and, the most unusual part in my opinion, the nature of the prostitute. Unfortunately, a collection of only a handful of the thousand of verses of this work has received notice and attention by the modern world - namely the verses, which describe the 64 arts of Kama ranging from cooing and biting to sexual positions and the appropriate setting for such sexual union. I do not understand why people believe that they will discover some sexual awakening from a book, whose focus is spiritual and philosophical in nature; if you are looking for this, there are obviously more available sources of this information.

This actually is more of a list of erotic behavior than it is a manual - anyone that reads this will never have a need to read an issue of 'Cosmo' again. (but then, anyone who has gone further than the missionary position probably doesn't need to read Cosmo either ;) De todos os amantes de uma rapariga, só será o seu verdadeiro marido aquele que possuir as qualidades que ela preza, e só um marido assim desfruta de verdadeiro ascendente sobre ela porque o é por amor; Nandi, bull companion of lord Shiva is said to be the first formulator of the Kama Shastras or rules of love that had one thousand chapters. Like most children, my brother and I knew where everything was in our house, paying particular attention to the things we weren't supposed to know about. This book was contained in a shoebox in the closet of my parent's bedroom.

He cooks the heart of a mongoose, the fruits of a fenugreek plant and a long gourd, and snake eyes, over a fire that does not smoke. Then he rubs into this the same measure of the collegium used as eye make-up. When he has smeared his eyes with this, he can move about without a shadow or a body.A cave painting from the Vishvantara Jataka, 6th century, Ajanta, Northern Deccan. The nayaka is seen in a pleasure palace. Study of the shastras Shastrasangraha Prakarana There was also a couple chapters on sex, but they can be easily skipped if that's not your cup of tea. Especially the chapter on Eunuchs, just wierd. Vatsyayana's work contains about one thousand, two hundred and fifty shlokas, or verses, and is divided into seven books and thirty-six parts. Hardly anything is known about Vatsyayana himself. His real name was supposedly Mallinaga or Mrillana, Vatsyayana being his family name. At the end of his work, Vatsyayana wrote: After reading and considering the works of Babhravya and other ancient authors, and thinking over the meaning of the rules given by them, this treatise was composed, according to the precepts of the Holy Writ, for the benefit of the world, by Vatsyayana, while leading the life of a religious student at Benares, and wholly engaged in the contemplation of the Deity. This work is not to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires. A person acquainted with the true principles of this science, who preserves his dharma , his artha and his kama, and who has regard for the customs of the people, is sure to obtain mastery over his senses. In short, an intelligent and knowing person, attending to dharma and artha and also to kama, without becoming the slave of his passions, will obtain success in everything that he may do.

In recommending that the man not touch the woman sexually for the first three nights after marriage, using this time to understand her feelings, win her trust, and arouse her love, Vatsayana takes a momentous step in the history of Indian sexuality by introducing the notion of love in sex. He even goes so far as to advance the radical notion thatthe ultimate goal of marriage is to develop love between the couple and thus considers the love-marriage (which the religious texts regarded as ritually ‘low’ and disapproved of, and which is still a rarity in contemporary Indian society) to be the pre-eminent form of marriage. Richard Schmidt, the German translator, would wax lyrical: 'The burning heat of the Indian sun, the fabulous luxuriance of the vegetation, the enchanted poetry of moonlit nights permeated by the perfume of lotus flowers and, not least, the distinctive role the Indian people have always played, the role of unworldly dreamers, philosophers, impractical romantics—all combine to make the Indian a real virtuoso in love.' Ananga Ranga was composed by the poet Kalyanamalla, for the amusement of Ladkhan, the son of Ahmed Lidi. Ladkhan was also known as Ladana Mull and Ladanaballa. He was supposedly a relation of or had a connection with the house of Lodi, which reigned in India from A.D. 1450 to 1526. The work would, therefore, have been written in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Containing ten chapters, it was translated into English but only six copies were printed for private circulation. Popularly believed to be the latest of the Sanskrit works on the subject, the ideas in it were evidently taken from previous writings of the same nature. Pleasure, in general, consists in engaging the ear, skin, eye, tongue, and nose each in its own appropriate sensation, all under the control of the mind and heart driven by the conscious self.Though it is impossible to put an exact date on Vatsyayana's life or work, based on certain references in his work, it is presumed that he lived sometime between the first and sixth century A.D. He mentions that Satakarni Satavahana, a king of Kuntala, seized with the passion of love, deprived Malayavati, his wife, of her life by using kartari, a highly ardent scissor-like grip. Vatsyayana quotes this to caution lovers of the danger of such practices when under the influence of an all-consuming passion. Since this king of Kuntala is believed to have lived and reigned during the first century A.D., Vatsyayana must have lived after him.