Kama sutra

Kama sutra.

The Kama-sutra is an ancient Hindu text that deals with human sexual behavior; which stands out for the body postures to be performed in its practice.

• .️, in devánagari writing.
• kāma-sūtrain the AITS system of Sanskrit transliteration.
• Pronunciation: kámasutra.
• Etymology: ‘Aphorisms on Sexuality’: kāma is ‘sexplace’ and sūtra, ‘hilo, short phrase’.

Considered the basic work on love in Sanskrit literature, it was written by Vatsiaiana. The full title is Vātsyāyana kāma sūtra ('The aphorisms on sexuality, from Vatsiaiana'). Chronologically, the author is placed in the Gupta period (which ran from 240 to 550 AD).

Various versions have been published over time. Originally, any of the illustrated versions (inside the book or on the cover) were drawn by hand; At present there are versions with real photographic illustrations and even with educational erotic videos.

Chapters

The Kama sutra is made up of 36 chapters dealing with 7 different topics, each of which was written by an expert in the field. The themes are:

1. "Introduction" (4 chapters): about sex in general, its place in a man's life, and a classification of women.
2. "On the sexual act": an in-depth discussion on kisses, various types of sexual games preliminary to the sexual act, orgasms, a list of sexual positions, oral sex, taboos and trios.
3. "On the choice of a wife" (5 chapters): the courtship and marriage.
4. "On the wife" (2 chapters): the proper conduct of a wife.
5. "About the wives of others" (6 chapters): mainly about seduction.
6. "On the courtiers" (6 chapters).
7. "To attract other people" (2 chapters).

Positions and ways of making love

Vatsiaiana believed that there are 12 basic ways of making love and 8 main positions or postures (asanas). The Kama sutra has a total of 64 "arts," the name given by the author to the combination of a way of making love with a position. The chapter that lists the multiple arts is the best known, and it is a very common mistake to confuse this with the Kama Sutra when in fact it is only a part of it. It is worth mentioning that making love is the art of playing with each other, discovering which are the most sensitive points of the couple in order to feel pleasure and always keep in mind what is the difference between the two.

Pleasure

The rest of the book offers tips on how to be a good citizen and some ideas about relationships between men and women. The Kama Sutra defines sex as a "divine union." Vatsiaiana believed that sex by itself was not something "bad", but practicing it in a frivolous way was sinful. The Kama Sutra has helped many people to enjoy sex on a deeper level, and can be considered a technical guide to sexual enjoyment, as well as an outline of sexual practices in India during that time..

The most famous English translation is that of Sir Richard Francis Burton, which dates from 1883. Another important translation is that of Indra Shina, done in the 1970s.