21 ‘Not so. For when a potter’s wheel or a spinning top whirls about in the same way, at the start it whirls with dull energy and then gradually increases to its full energy. That is evident. And the “wish to stop” occurs because the fluids are used up.* So this is not a convincing objection.
22 Men’s sensual pleasure comes at the end of sex,
but women’s is continual.
And the wish to stop occurs
only when fluids are used up.’
23 Vatsyayana says: It is clearly apparent from this very argument that the sensual experience of a woman is manifested just like that of a man. 24How could two people of the same species who are striving toward a single goal achieve different climaxes? 25One might argue: because they differ in their methods and in their erotic arousal. 26But what causes the difference in their methods? Their different physical natures. By his physical nature, the man is the active agent and the young woman is the passive locus; the agent contributes to the action in one way and the locus in another. And the difference in their erotic arousal comes from this difference in their methods that comes from their physical natures. The man is aroused by the thought, ‘I am taking her’, the young woman by the thought, ‘I am being taken by him.’
27 This objection may be raised about that argument: ‘Why do they not differ in their climaxes just as in their methods?’
Not so. The difference in their methods has a cause, namely, the different characteristics of the active and passive roles. But, logically, there can be no difference in their climaxes since that has no cause. For they are not of different species.*
28 This objection may be raised about that argument: ‘The different parts of a sentence (subject and locus) cohere in producing a single meaning, but these two people, by contrast, are each intent upon achieving separate personal goals. So this analogy is inappropriate.’
29 Not so. Several agents may achieve their goals at the same time, as we see when two rams batter one another, or two wood apples* strike one another in a game, or two wrestlers are locked together in a fight.
Someone might object: ‘But there is no distinction between the two actors in these cases.’
Nor is there any distinction between the essence of the subjects in this case, the man and woman. The difference in their methods just comes from their physical natures, as has already been established in this argument. And so the two of them also experience a similar sensual pleasure.
30 Since there is no difference in the species
of a couple, they seek a similar sensual pleasure.
Therefore the woman should be treated in such a way
that she achieves her sexual climax first.*
31 Since the similarity in climaxes has been proved in this way, there are nine forms of sex keyed to endurance, too, in terms of the time to climax, just as there are nine in terms of size and temperament.
32 The synonyms for sexual pleasure (rati) are sexual feeling (rasa), sexual pleasure or ecstasy (rati), love or ecstasy (priti), emotion, temperament, or climax (bhava), passion (raga), sexual energy (vega), and satisfaction (samapti). The synonyms for the sexual act (surata) are sex or making love (samprayoga), mating or coupling (rata), the secret act (rahas), going to bed together (shayana), and seduction (mohana).*
33 Since there are nine kinds of sex according to each of the criteria of size, endurance, and temperament, when they are combined it is not possible to enumerate all the forms of sex. There are just too many. 34Vatsyayana says: After deliberating about these forms, a man should choose the appropriate sexual practices.
35 In the first coupling, the man’s sexual energy is fierce but he lasts just a short time; in later ones, it is just the opposite. On the other hand, it is just the other way around for a woman, until the fluids are used up.* 36And it is commonly said: ‘The man runs out of fluid before the woman runs out of fluid.’
37 ‘Women achieve their sensual pleasure quickly
if they are naturally delicate
and can be strongly stimulated.’
That is what scholars agree upon.
[7] Types of Love
38 Up to this point, sex has been explained
for experts; from now on,
a detailed description will be elaborated
to enlighten the slow-witted.*
39 People who know the science say
that love takes four forms,
arising out of habit, erotic arousal,
transference, and the objects of the senses.
40 The love that comes from habit
is marked by the constant repetition of certain actions;
it can be recognized in the course of activities like hunting,
and is expressed in words and other manifestations.
41 The love that comes from erotic arousal
arises from the imagination,
not in response to any object of the senses,
nor in activities that have previously become a habit.*
42 It can be recognized in the course of
oral sex with a woman
or with a person of the third nature,
or in various activities such as kissing.
43 Those who know the science call it
the love that comes from a transference
when someone says, referring to another object of desire,
‘This one here, not the other one from the past, is the one I love.’*
44 The love that comes from the objects of the senses,
right before one’s eyes, is well known in the world;
and because it yields the most important fruit,
it is the goal of the three others, too.
45 When a man learns about the types of love from the text,
and recognizes each type from the signs that the text describes,
he will make use of each emotion in the way
appropriate to the manner in which it arises.
CHAPTER TWO
[8] Ways of Embracing
1 Some people call the part* of this text about sex ‘the sixty-four’. Because it has sixty-four sections, 2scholars have called the whole text ‘the sixty-four’.* 3Or, because the arts number sixty-four and are a part of sex, ‘the sixty-four’ may refer to the aggregate of the arts. Some people say: ‘Because the verses of the Rig Veda (which are divided into ten sections) are called “the sixty-four”, that number connects this text with that one. And because both of these texts are connected with Panchala, those who know the many verses of the Rig Veda use the name of “the sixty-four” to honour the Kamasutra.’* 4 The followers of Babhravya say: ‘Sixty-four is eight eights, the eight theoretical varieties of each of the eight parts: embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, sexual positions, moaning, the woman playing the man’s part, and oral sex.’ 5But Vatsyayana says: Since the division into eight theoretical varieties is too few for some categories and too many for others, and since sex involves other categories, too, such as slapping, screaming, a man’s sexual strokes, and unusual sexual acts, this is merely a manner of speaking, just as we speak of the ‘seven-leaf devil tree or the ‘five-colour’ offering of rice.
6 When a man and woman have not yet made love together, they use four sorts of embraces to reveal the signs of their love: ‘touching’, ‘stabbing’, ‘grinding’, and ‘pressing’. 7Generally, the exact meaning of the name precisely describes the action. 8On some pretext, he moves close to the woman he wants, when she is facing him, and touches limb to limb. This is ‘touching’. 9She makes as if to take something from the man she wants, when he is standing or sitting in a deserted place, and stabs him with her breast, and the man also grasps her and presses in response. This is called ‘stabbing’. 10These two embraces are for a couple who have not yet spoken much together. 11In a dark or crowded or deserted place, the two of them move slowly and grind their bodies against one another for not too brief a time. This is ‘grinding’. 12The very same action with a wall or a pillar used as the other leg of a
pair of tongs, pressing extensively, is called ‘pressing’. 13These two embraces are for a couple who have already understood one another’s signals.
14 Four embraces are used while making love: the ‘twining vine’, ‘climbing the tree’, ‘rice-and-sesame’, and ‘milk-and-water’. 15As a vine twines around a great dammar tree, so she twines around him and bends his face down to her to kiss him. Or, raising it up again, she pants gently, rests on him, and gazes at him with love for a while. This is the ‘twining vine’. 16She steps on his foot with her foot, places her other foot on his thigh or wraps her leg around him, with one arm gripping his back and the other bending down his shoulder, and panting gently, moaning a little, she tries to climb him to kiss him. This is called ‘climbing the tree’. 17These two embraces are done standing up. 18Lying on a bed, their thighs entangled and arms entangled, they embrace so tightly that they seem to be wrestling against one another. This is ‘rice-and-sesame’.*19 Blind with passion, oblivious to pain or injury, they embrace as if they would enter one another; she may be on his lap, seated facing him, or on a bed. This is called ‘milk-and-water’. 20These two embraces are used in moments of passion. 21Those are the ways of embracing closely, according to the followers of Babhravya.
22 But Suvarnanabha describes an additional four close embraces of a single part of the body: 23The thighs are used as a pair of tongs to press the partner’s thigh, or both thighs, between them, squeezing as hard as possible. This is called the ‘close embrace of the thighs’. 24The woman, her coiffed hair flying loose, leaps on top of the man and presses his pelvis with her pelvis, to scratch, bite, slap, and kiss him. This is the ‘close embrace of the pelvises’. 25She presses her two breasts into his chest and transfers their full weight to him. This is called the ‘embrace of breasts’. 26One partner touches the other, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, forehead to forehead. This is the ‘embrace of foreheads’.
27 Some people think that massaging is also a kind of close embrace, because it involves touching. 28But Vatsyayana says: No. For a massage takes place at a particular time set aside, has a different use, and is not enjoyed by both partners in the same way.
29 When men ask about all the ways of embracing,
or hear about them,
or tell stories about them,
they want to make love.
30 Some sexual embraces, not in this text,
also intensify passion;
those, too, may be used for love-making,
but only with care.
31 The territory of the texts extends
only so far as men have dull appetites;
but when the wheel of sexual ecstasy is in full motion,
there is no textbook at all, and no order.
CHAPTER THREE
[9] Procedures of Kissing
1 There is no order of precedence for kissing, scratching, or biting, because they involve passion. They are generally used before sex, and slapping and moaning during sex. 2Vatsyayana says: Everything at any time, because passion does not look before it leaps.
3 These techniques should be used one at a time and not blatantly, in the first coupling with a trusting woman, given the nature of her passion. After that, they may be used quite quickly, in particular combinations, to enflame passion. 4People kiss on the forehead, hair, cheeks, eyes, chest, breasts, lips, and the inside of the mouth; 5the people of Lata also kiss where the two thighs join the torso, on the armpits, and on the Mound of Venus. 6Vatsyayana says: There are all sorts of places to kiss, in the sway of passion and according to local customs, but not all of them are for all people.
7 There are three sorts of kisses for a virgin, called the ‘casual’, the ‘throbbing’, and the ‘brushing’. 8When he grasps her by force and she places her mouth on his mouth but does not move, that is called the ‘casual’ kiss. 9When she is still a bit shy but wants to grasp his lower lip after he has pressed it into her mouth, and she makes her lower lip throb but cannot bear to do this with her upper lip—that is called the ‘throbbing’ kiss. 10When she grasps him gently, closes her eyes, covers his eyes with her hand, and brushes him with the tip of her tongue, that is the ‘brushing’ kiss.
11 And there are four more kisses: the ‘equal’, the ‘sideways’, the ‘turned-around’, and the ‘pressing’. 12There is also a fifth, called the ‘pressing hard’: cupping the fingers to squeeze the partner’s lips into a ball, one partner presses hard with the cup of the lips, but without using the teeth.
13 Then a lover can play a game: 14the winner is the one who first grasps the other’s lips. 15If she loses, she pretends to cry, waves her hand about, pushes him away, bites him, and turns away from him; if he drags her to him by force, she disputes the loss and says, ‘Let us wager again.’ If she loses that time too, she comes at him twice as much as before. 16If he becomes overconfident or careless, she grasps his lower lip and holds it with her teeth so that he cannot get it out; then she laughs, shouts, makes fun of him, leaps, exults, dances, and says whatever she pleases, mocking him, raising her eyebrows and rolling her eyes. This is the kissing-game quarrel. 17In this same manner, there are mock-quarrels for scratching, biting, and slapping. 18But these fierce methods are suitable only for two people whose sexual energy is fierce, because they suit their natures.
19 He grasps her upper lip while she is kissing him; this is called ‘kissing the upper lip’. 20One partner grasps the other’s two lips with the tongs made of the two lips; this is called the ‘bowl’, and can be done to a woman or to a man who does not yet show the signs of sexual maturity. 21In this kiss, one partner may rub the tongue over the other’s teeth, palate, or tongue; and this is called the ‘battle of tongues’. 22It may also involve giving and receiving hard blows on the mouth and teeth. 23Kisses may be applied moderately, with pressure, with curved lips, or gently, on other parts of the body, each according to the particular place. Those are the varieties of kisses.
24 When a woman gazes at the mouth of her sleeping lover and kisses him because she desires him, this is the ‘kiss that kindles passion’. 25The ‘stirring kiss’ is used to wake up a man who is inattentive, quarrelsome, looking in another direction, or inclined to sleep. 26A man who comes home late at night and finds his woman asleep in bed may give her an ‘awakening kiss’, because he desires her. 27But if she wishes to know her man’s mood, she may pretend to be asleep when she knows he has come back.
28 He may kiss the reflection or shadow of the woman he wants, in a mirror, on a wall, or in water, to demonstrate his feelings. 29A ‘transferred’ kiss or embrace may be given to a child, a portrait or a statue. 30And at night, or at a performance, or in an assembly of his people, he moves close to the woman he wants and kisses her fingers, or sits down and kisses her toes. 31But when a woman who is giving the man a massage makes sure he has understood her signals and rests her face on his thighs as if she had no desire but was overcome by sleep, and then kisses his thighs, that is called a kiss ‘making advances’. 32And there is a verse about this:
Respond to an action with a counter-action,
to a blow with a counter-blow,
and by this same logic,
to a kiss with a counter-kiss.*
CHAPTER FOUR
[10] Types of Scratching with the Nails
1 When passion mounts, lovers scratch one another with their nails in the spirit of erotic friction. 2Scratching is for their first time together, or on a return from a journey or a departure for a journey, or for a woman who has just relented from her anger or is drunk. It is not to be used all the time, or by two people whose sexual energy is not fierce. (3 The same goes for biting, because individual tastes can be overpowering.)4 Eight shapes can be made with the nails: the ‘goose-flesh’, the ‘half-moon’, the ‘circle’, the ‘line’, the ‘tiger’s claw’, the ‘peacock’s foot’, the ‘hare’s leap’, and the ‘lotus leaf. 5The places for them are on the armpits, breasts, neck, back, and thighs, and between the legs. 6Suvarnanabha says, ‘For people on the fas
t-rolling wheel of sexual ecstasy, there is no such thing as a place or a non-place.’ 7For scratching, two people whose sexual energy is fierce should have had the tips of the nails on their left hands recently trimmed into two or three points.* 8Nails of good quality have streaks and are even, shiny, free of dirt or broken edges, well grown, soft, and oily-looking. 9The people of Gauda have long nails that make the hands beautiful and capture the hearts of women who look at them. 10The people of the South have short nails that are capable of doing work and can be used to produce whatever shapes one wishes to make. 11The people of Maharashtra have medium-sized nails that share the best qualities of both long and short nails.
12 The ‘gooseflesh’ is made when the nails of this medium length are brought close together and moved over the chin, breasts, or lower lip, so lightly that they leave no line but by the mere touch cause the thrill of gooseflesh and make a sound as they strike one another. 13A man can do this to the woman he wants, in the course of massaging her body, scratching her head, squeezing her pimples, or disturbing her with something frightening. 14The ‘half-moon’ is a curved mark left by the nails on the neck or the upper part of the breast. 15When two of these are made face to face, they form a ‘circle’. 16This can be applied to the Mound of Venus, the cavities of the loins, and the place where the thighs join the torso. 17The ‘line’, not too long, can be used on any place. 18If it is curved and applied right up to the nipple of the breast, it becomes a ‘tiger’s claw’. 19A ‘line’ facing toward the nipple, made by all five fingers facing one another, is the ‘peacock’s foot’. 20With a woman praised for her love-making, he uses the ‘hare’s leap’, making five ‘peacock’s foot’ scratches close together right on the nipple of her breast. 21A mark in the form of a lotus leaf, on the upper part of the breast or around the hips, is called a ‘lotus leaf. 22When a man is about to depart on a journey, he marks three or four lines on her thighs or on the upper part of her breasts, to make her remember him. Those are the ways of using the nails.
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