The Kama Sutra is an ancient Hindu text that is meant to be guidelines for how to love and live a fulfilling life. It starts out by introducing the Hindu religion and its beliefs that life necessitated three kinds of activity: to assure its survival, its means of
existence, and its nourishment (Danéliou p. 1). The Hindu’s also believed that there are three aims in life: 1) (Artha) material goods assure survival 2) (Kama) erotic practice assures the transmission of life 3) (Dharma) rules of behavior, a moral nature, assures cohesion and duration of the species (Danéliou p. 2). The author of the Kama Sutra is Vātsyāyana who was a Brahman and known has a “great man of letters”. Although he is the author of the Kama Sutra, he did not write the text itself. The Kama Sutra is a compilation of various letters and texts that Vātsyāyana collected between 400 BCE and 200 CE in fear of them getting lost or ruined (Danéliou p. 3).
Alain Danéliou asserts this information within the first few pages of The Complete Kama Sutra. Danéliou also notes that, “eroticism is not pornographic, but the search for pleasure and that the goal of the techniques of love is to attain infinite delight” (Danéliou p. 5). Similar to other Hindu works, the Kama Sutra is written to be memorized with explanations provided by a teacher and in some cases the teacher is preferred to be female (Danéliou p. 5). The Kama Sutra is organized into 36 chapters broken down into 7 sections. In order to interpret the Hindu concepts the reader has to remember the teaching tradition and acknowledge the associated commentaries. Danéliou includes two commentaries in this text. One is the Jayamangala commentary, written in Sanskrit by Yashodhara during the Middle Ages, and the other is the modern commentary in Hindi by Devadatta Shastri (Danéliou p. 6). In today’s culture the Kama Sutra is widely thought of as a guide to human sexual behavior and practical advice on sexual intercourse.
existence, and its nourishment (Danéliou p. 1). The Hindu’s also believed that there are three aims in life: 1) (Artha) material goods assure survival 2) (Kama) erotic practice assures the transmission of life 3) (Dharma) rules of behavior, a moral nature, assures cohesion and duration of the species (Danéliou p. 2). The author of the Kama Sutra is Vātsyāyana who was a Brahman and known has a “great man of letters”. Although he is the author of the Kama Sutra, he did not write the text itself. The Kama Sutra is a compilation of various letters and texts that Vātsyāyana collected between 400 BCE and 200 CE in fear of them getting lost or ruined (Danéliou p. 3).
Alain Danéliou asserts this information within the first few pages of The Complete Kama Sutra. Danéliou also notes that, “eroticism is not pornographic, but the search for pleasure and that the goal of the techniques of love is to attain infinite delight” (Danéliou p. 5). Similar to other Hindu works, the Kama Sutra is written to be memorized with explanations provided by a teacher and in some cases the teacher is preferred to be female (Danéliou p. 5). The Kama Sutra is organized into 36 chapters broken down into 7 sections. In order to interpret the Hindu concepts the reader has to remember the teaching tradition and acknowledge the associated commentaries. Danéliou includes two commentaries in this text. One is the Jayamangala commentary, written in Sanskrit by Yashodhara during the Middle Ages, and the other is the modern commentary in Hindi by Devadatta Shastri (Danéliou p. 6). In today’s culture the Kama Sutra is widely thought of as a guide to human sexual behavior and practical advice on sexual intercourse.
 |  |
The Kama Sutra
I.2
Kama is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama.
I.2
Kama is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama.
RSS Feed