Erotic Classics I

by Various Authors

  When young men approach her with delight, she should think of what she may accomplish through them.

  The combination of gains and losses on all sides are: gain on one side, and loss on all others; loss on one side and gain on all others; gain on all sides, loss on all sides.

  A courtesan should also consider doubts about gain and doubts about loss with reference both to wealth, religious merit, and pleasure.

  Thus ends the consideration of gain, loss, attendant gains, attendant losses, and doubts.

  The different kinds of courtesans are:

  A bawd.

  A female attendant.

  An unchaste woman.

  A dancing girl.

  A female artisan.

  A woman who has left her family.

  A woman living on her beauty.

  And, finally, a regular courtesan.

  All the above kinds of courtesans are acquainted with various kinds of men, and should consider the ways of getting money from them, of pleasing them, of separating themselves from them, and of reuniting with them. They should also take into consideration particular gains and losses, attendant gains and losses, and doubts in accordance with their several conditions.

  Thus end the considerations of courtesans.

  There are also two verses on the subject as follows:

  “Men want pleasure, while women want money, and therefore this Part, which treats of the means of gaining wealth, should be studied.”

  “There are some women who seek for love, and there are others who seek for money; for the former the ways of love are told in previous portions of this work, while the ways of getting money, as practised by courtesans, are described in this Part.”

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  74 The souls of men who die with their desires unfulfilled are said to go to the world of the Manes, and not direct to the Supreme Spirit.

  Part VII—About the Means of Attracting Others to Yourself

  Chapter I—On Personal Adornment; on Subjugating the Hearts of Others; and on Tonic Medicines

  When a person fails to obtain the object of his desires by any of the ways previously related, he should then have recourse to other ways of attracting others to himself.

  Now, good looks, good qualities, youth, and liberality are the chief and most natural means of making a person agreeable in the eyes of others. But in the absence of these a man or a woman must have resort to artificial means, or to art, and the following are some recipes that may be found useful.

  (a) An ointment made of the tabernamontana coronaria, the costus speciosus or arabicus, and the flacourtia cataphracta, can be used as an unguent of adornment.

  (b) If a fine powder is made of the above plants, and applied to the wick of a lamp, which is made to burn with the oil of blue vitrol, the black pigment or lamp black produced therefrom, when applied to the eye-lashes, has the effect of making a person look lovely.

  (c) The oil of the hog weed, the echites putescens, the sarina plant, the yellow amaranth, and the leaf of the nymphæ, if applied to the body, has the same effect.

  (d) A black pigment from the same plants produce a similar effect.

  (e) By eating the powder of the nelumbrium speciosum, the blue lotus, and the mesna roxburghii, with ghee and honey, a man becomes lovely in the eyes of others.

  (f) The above things, together with the tabernamontana coronaria, and the xanthochymus pictorius, if used as an ointment, produce the same results.

  (g) If the bone of a peacock or of an hyena be covered with gold, and tied on the right hand, it makes a man lovely in the eyes of other people.

  (h) In the same way, if a bead, made of the seed of the jujube, or of the conch shell, be enchanted by the incantations mentioned in the Atharvana Veda, or by the incantations of those well skilled in the science of magic, and tied on the hand, it produces the same result as described above.

  (i) When a female attendant arrives at the age of puberty, her master should keep her secluded, and when men ardently desire her on account of her seclusion, and on account of the difficulty of approaching her, he should then bestow her hand on such a person as may endow her with wealth and happiness.

  This is a means of increasing the loveliness of a person in the eyes of others.

  In the same way, when the daughter of a courtesan arrives at the age of puberty, the mother should get together a lot of young men of the same age, disposition, and knowledge as her daughter, and tell them that she would give her in marriage to the person who would give her presents of a particular kind.

  After this the daughter should be kept in seclusion as far as possible, and the mother should give her in marriage to the man who may be ready to give her the presents agreed upon. If the mother is unable to get so much out of the man, she should show some of her own things as having been given to the daughter by the bridegroom.

  Or, the mother may allow her daughter to be married to the man privately, as if she was ignorant of the whole affair, and then pretending that it has come to her knowledge, she may give her consent to the union.

  The daughter, too, should make herself attractive to the sons of wealthy citizens, unknown to her mother, and make them attached to her, and for this purpose should meet them at the time of learning to sing, and in places where music is played, and at the houses of other people, and then request her mother, through a female friend, or servant, to be allowed to unite herself to the man who is most agreeable to her. 75

  When the daughter of a courtesan is thus given to a man, the ties of marriage should be observed for one year, and after that she may do what she likes. But even after the end of the year, when otherwise engaged, if she should be now and then invited by her first husband to come and see him, she should put aside her present gain, and go to him for the night.

  Such is the mode of temporary marriage among courtesans, and of increasing their loveliness, and their value in the eyes of others. What has been said about them should also be understood to apply to the daughters of dancing women, whose mothers should give them only to such persons as are likely to become useful to them in various ways.

  Thus end the ways of making oneself lovely in the eyes of others.

  (a) If a man, after anointing his lingam with a mixture of the powders of the white thorn apple, the long pepper, and the black pepper, and honey, engages in sexual union with a woman, he makes her subject to his will.

  (b) The application of a mixture of the leaf of the plant vatodbhranta, of the flowers thrown on a human corpse when carried out to be burnt, and the powder of the bones of the peacock, and of the jiwanjiva bird, produces the same effect.

  (c) The remains of a kite who has died a natural death, ground into powder, and mixed with cowach and honey, has also the same effect.

  (d) Anointing oneself with an ointment made of the plant emblica myrabolans has the power of subjecting women to one’s will.

  (e) If a man cuts into small pieces the sprouts of the vajnasunhi plant, and dips them into a mixture of red arsenic and sulphur, and then dries them seven times, and applies this powder mixed with honey to his lingam, he can subjugate a woman to his will directly that he has had sexual union with her, or, if, by burning these very sprouts at night and looking at the smoke, he sees a golden moon behind, he will then be successful with any woman; or if he throws some of the powder of these same sprouts mixed with the excrement of a monkey upon a maiden, she will not be given in marriage to anybody else.

  (f) If pieces of the arris root are dressed with the oil of the mango, and placed for six months in a hole made in the trunk of the sisu tree, and are then taken out and made up into an ointment, and applied to the lingam, this is said to serve as the means of subjugating women.

  (g) If the bone of a camel is dipped into the juice of the plant eclipta prostata, and then burnt, and the black pigment produced
from its ashes is placed in a box also made of the bone of a camel, and applied together with antimony to the eye lashes with a pencil also made of the bone of a camel, then that pigment is said to be very pure, and wholesome for the eyes, and serves as a means of subjugating others to the person who uses it. The same effect can be produced by black pigment made of the bones of hawks, vultures, and peacocks.

  Thus end the ways of subjugating others to one’s own will.

  Now the means of increasing sexual vigour are as follows:

  (a) A man obtains sexual vigour by drinking milk mixed with sugar, the root of the uchchata plant, the piper chaba, and liquorice.

  (b) Drinking milk mixed with sugar, and having the testicle of a ram or a goat boiled in it, is also produces vigour.

  (c) The drinking of the juice of the hedysarum gangeticum, the kuili, and the kshirika plant mixed with milk, produces the same effect.

  (d) The seed of the long pepper along with the seeds of the sanseviera roxburghiana, and the hedysarum gangeticum plant, all pounded together, and mixed with milk, is productive of a similar result.

  (e) According to ancient authors, if a man pounds the seeds or roots of the trapa bispinosa, the kasurika, the tuscan jasmine, and liquorice, together with the kshirakapoli (a kind of onion), and puts the powder into milk mixed with sugar and ghee, and having boiled the whole mixture on a moderate fire, drinks the paste so formed, he will be able to enjoy innumerable women.

  (f) In the same way, if a man mixes rice with the eggs of the sparrow, and having boiled this in milk, adds to it ghee and honey, and drinks as much of it as necessary, this will produce the same effect.

  (g) If a man takes the outer covering of sesamum seeds, and soaks them with the eggs of sparrows, and then, having boiled them in milk, mixed with sugar and ghee, along with the fruits of the trapa bispinosa and the kasurika plant, and adding to it the flour of wheat and beans, and then drinks this composition, he is said to be able to enjoy many women.

  (h) If ghee, honey, sugar, and liquorice in equal quantities, the juice of the fennel plant, and milk are mixed together, this nectar-like composition is said to be holy, and provocative of sexual vigour, a preservative of life, and sweet to the taste.

  (i) The drinking of a paste composed of the asparagus racemosus, the shvadaushtra plant, the guduchi plant, the long pepper, and liquorice, boiled in milk, honey, and ghee, in the spring, is said to have the same effect as the above.

  (j) Boiling the asparagus racemosus, and the shvadaushtra plant, along with the pounded fruits of the premna spinosa in water, and drinking the same, is said to act in the same way.

  (k) Drinking boiled ghee, or clarified butter in the morning during the spring season, is said to be beneficial to health and strength, and agreeable to the taste.

  (l) If the powder of the seed of the shvadaushtra plant and the flower of barley are mixed together in equal parts, and a portion of it, i.e., two palas in weight, is eaten every morning on getting up, it has the same effect as the preceding recipe.

  There are also verses on the subject as follows:

  “The means 76 of producing love and sexual vigour should be learnt from the science of medicine, from the Vedas, from those who are learned in the arts of magic, and from confidential relatives. No means should be tried which are doubtful in their effects, which are likely to cause injury to the body, which involve the death of animals, and which bring us in contact with impure things. Such means should only be used as are holy, acknowledged to be good, and approved of by Brahmans, and friends.”

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  75 It is a custom of the courtesans of Oriental countries to give their daughters temporarily in marriage when they come of age, and after they have received an education in the Kama Sutra and other arts. Full details are given of this at page 76 of “Early Ideas, a group of Hindu stories, collected and collated by Anaryan. W. H. Allen and Co., London, 1881.”

  76 From the earliest times Oriental authors have occupied themselves about aphrodisiacs. The following note on the subject is taken from page 29 of a translation of the Hindu Art of Love, otherwise the Anunga Runga, alluded to in the preface of this work, Part I:—“Most Eastern treatises divide aphrodisiacs into two different kinds: 1., the mechanical or natural, such as scarification, flagellation, etc.; and 2., the medicinal or artificial. To the former belong the application of insects, as is practised by some savage races; and all orientalists will remember the tale of the old Brahman, whose young wife insisted upon his being again stung by a wasp.”

  Chapter II—Of the Ways of Exciting Desire, and Miscellaneous Experiments, and Recipes

  If a man is unable to satisfy a Hastini, or elephant woman, he should have recourse to various means to excite her passion. At the commencement he should rub her yoni with his hand or fingers, and not begin to have intercourse with her until she becomes excited, or experiences pleasure. This is one way of exciting a woman.

  Or, he may make use of certain Apadravyas, or things which are put on or around the lingam to supplement its length or its thickness, so as to fit it to the yoni. In the opinion of Babhravya, these Apadravyas should be made of gold, silver, copper, iron, ivory, buffalo’s horn, various kinds of wood, tin or lead, and should be soft, cool, provocative of sexual vigour, and well fitted to serve the intended purpose. Vatsyayana, however, says that they may be made according to the natural liking of each individual.

  The following are the different kinds of Apadravyas.

  (1) “The armlet” (Valaya) should be of the same size as the lingam, and should have its outer surface made rough with globules.

  (2) “The couple” (Sanghati) is formed of two armlets.

  (3) “The bracelet” (Chudaka) is made by joining three or more armlets, until they come up to the required length of the lingam.

  (4) “The single bracelet” is formed by wrapping a single wire around the lingam, according to its dimensions.

  (5) The Kantuka or Jalaka is a tube open at both ends, with a hole through it, outwardly rough and studded with soft globules, and made to fit the side of the yoni, and tied to the waist.

  When such a thing cannot be obtained, then a tube made of the wood apple, or tubular stalk of the bottle gourd, or a reed made soft with oil and extracts of plants, and tied to the waist with strings, may be made use of, as also a row of soft pieces of wood tied together.

  The above are the things that can be used in connection with or in the place of the lingam.

  The people of the southern countries think that true sexual pleasure cannot be obtained without perforating the lingam, and they therefore cause it to be pierced like the lobes of the ears of an infant pierced for earrings.

  Now, when a young man perforates his lingam he should pierce it with a sharp instrument, and then stand in water so long as the blood continues to flow. At night he should engage in sexual intercourse, even with vigour, so as to clean the hole. After this he should continue to wash the hole with decoctions, and increase the size by putting into it small pieces of cane, and the wrightia antidysenterica, and thus gradually enlarging the orifice. It may also be washed with liquorice mixed with honey, and the size of the hole increased by the fruit stalks of the sima-patra plant. The hole should be annointed with a small quantity of oil.

  In the hole made in the lingam a man may put Apadravyas of various forms, such as the “round,” the “round on one side,” the “wooden mortar,” the “flower,” the “armlet,” the “bone of the heron,” the “goad of the elephant,” the “collection of eight balls,” the “lock of hair,” the “place where four roads meet,” and other things named according to their forms and means of using them. All these Apadravyas should be rough on the outside according to their requirements.

  The ways of enlarging the lingam must be now related.

  When a man wishes to enlarge his lingam, he should rub it with the bristle
s of certain insects that live in trees, and then, after rubbing it for ten nights with oils, he should again rub it with the bristles as before. By continuing to do this a swelling will be gradually produced in the lingam, and he should then lie on a cot, and cause his lingam to hang down through a hole in the cot. After this he should take away all the pain from the swelling by using cool concoctions. The swelling, which is called “Suka,” and is often brought about among the people of the Dravida country, lasts for life.

  If the lingam is rubbed with the following things: the plant physalis flexuosa, the shavara-kandaka plant, the jalasuka plant, the fruit of the eggplant, the butter of a she buffalo, the hastri-charma plant, and the juice of the vajra-rasa plant, a swelling lasting for one month will be produced.

  By rubbing it with oil boiled in the concoctions of the above things, the same effect will be produced, but lasting for six months.

  The enlargement of the lingam is also effected by rubbing it or moistening it with oil boiled on a moderate fire along with the seeds of the pomegranate, and the cucumber, the juices of the valuka plant, the hasti-charma plant, and the eggplant.

  In addition to the above, other means may be learnt from experienced and confidential persons.

  The miscellaneous experiments and recipes are as follows:

  (a) If a man mixes the powder of the milk hedge plant, and the kantaka plant with the excrement of a monkey, and the powdered root of the lanjalalika plant, and throws this mixture on a woman, she will not love anybody else afterwards.

  (b) If a man thickens the juice of the fruits of the cassia fistula, and the eugenia jambolana by mixing them with the powder of the soma plant, the vernonia anthelmintica, the eclipta prostata, and the lohopa-jihirka, and applies this composition to the yoni of a woman, and then has sexual intercourse with her, his love for her will be destroyed.