23 And he may also make other scratches, in various forms. 24Scholars say: ‘Because the things people can imagine are infinite, and there are infinite kinds of dexterity, and one can learn anything by practice and repetition, and passion is at the very heart of cutting with the nails, who could survey all the forms?’ 25Vatsyayana says: For even passion demands variety. And it is through variety that partners inspire passion in one another. It is their infinite variety that makes courtesans de luxe and their lovers remain desirable to one another. Even in archery and in other martial arts, the textbooks insist on variety. How much more is this true of sex! 26But a man should not scratch marks of such variety on the wives of other men—except for special marks on concealed places, to increase their passion and make them remember.
27 When a woman sees the scars
that nails have made on her hidden places,
her love even for someone given up long ago
becomes as tender as if it were brand new.
28 When passions have been given up long ago,
love may disappear
unless there are wounds made by nails
to prompt memories of the abodes of passion.
29 Passion and respect arise
even in another man who sees,
from a distance, a young girl
with the marks of nails cut into her breasts.
30 And a man who is marked
with the signs of nails in various places
generally disturbs a woman’s mind
no matter how firm it may be.
31 There are no keener means
of increasing passion
than acts inflicted
with tooth and nail.
CHAPTER FIVE
[11] Ways of Biting
1 The places for kissing are also for biting, except for the upper lip, the inside of the mouth, and the eyes. 2Teeth of good quality are even and of the right size, with a shiny, reflective surface, sharp edges, no chips, and the ability to retain colours. 3Teeth of bad quality are blunt, marked with lines, rough, uneven, soft, broad, and separated by spaces. 4The different kinds of biting are: the ‘hidden’, the ‘swollen’, the ‘dot’, the ‘garland of dots’, the ‘coral and jewel’, the ‘garland of jewels’, the ‘scattered clouds’, and the ‘gnawing of the wild boar’.* 5The ‘hidden’ bite is perceptible through a not-too-bloody, barely red mark, 6and this becomes ‘swollen’ when it is done with force and pressure. 7These two form a ‘dot’ when they are applied to the middle of the lower lip. 8The ‘swollen’ bite and the ‘coral and jewel’ bite can be made on the cheek. 9The ‘earring kiss’ and wounds made by both scratching and biting are adornments for the left cheek. 10The ‘coral and jewel’ is so-called because it is made by bringing the teeth and lip together repeatedly. 11This same mark, repeated to form an ensemble, makes the ‘garland of jewels’. 12The ‘dot’ is so called because it is made on a very small patch of skin with a pincer formed by a pair of teeth. 13And repeated to form an ensemble, it makes the ‘garland of dots’. 14Both of these ‘garlands’ can be made on the neck, armpit, or flanks, 15but the ‘garland of dots’ can also be made on the forehead and thighs. 16The ‘scattered clouds’, on the top of the breasts, form a kind of circle with uneven peaks. 17The ‘gnawing of the wild boar’, only on the top of the breasts, is a series of many rows of long tooth-marks close together, with crimson between them. 18The last two are only for two people whose sexual energy is fierce. Those are the ways of biting.
19 When a man applies scratches, bites, and so forth to a forehead decoration, an earring, a bouquet of flowers, betel, or a sweet-smelling cinnamon bay-leaf used by the woman he wants, he is making advances.
[12] Customs from Different Regions
20 A man should treat a woman according to the nature of the region she comes from. 21The women from central India are mostly noblewomen with pure habits; they hate kissing, scratching, and biting, 22and so do the women of Bahlika and Avantika, 23though they are fond of unusual sexual acts. 24Women from Malava and Abhira like embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, and sucking, and although they do not like to be wounded they can be won over by slaps. 25The women who live in the land watered by the Indus and the other five rivers like oral sex. 26The women of the West and of Lata are capable of fierce sexual energy, and they moan softly. 27In the land where women rule,* and in Kosala, the women like to be slapped hard and generally use sex tools, for their sexual energy is very rough indeed. 28The women of Andhra are delicate by nature but have coarse habits and are very fond of sexual ecstasy and impure delights. 29The women of Maharashtra are aroused by all of the sixty-four techniques, enjoy dirty, coarse talk, and take the initiative impetuously in bed. 30The women of the city are just like that, but they reveal it only in private. 31And when Dravidian women are stimulated with fore-play they only very slowly become wet. 32The women of Vanavasa have average sexual energy and will endure everything, but they hide their bodies, laugh at other people’s bodies, and cannot abide anything objectionable, dirty or rough. 33The women of Gauda speak delicately, have delicate bodies, and tend to fall in love.
34 Suvarnanabha says, ‘The nature of the individual is more important than the nature of the region.’ Local customs are not relevant to this matter. 35And in the course of time, practices, styles of clothing, and games move from one region to another; and a person should know that, too. 36In the list that begins with close embraces, each kindles more passion than the one that follows but is more commonly used.
37 Whatever wound a man inflicts on a woman,
even when she tries to restrain him and cannot bear it,
she should do that very thing to him
twice as hard.
38 The response to a ‘dot’ is a ‘garland’,
and to a ‘garland’, a ‘scattered cloud’.
Pretending to be angry, this is how
a woman picks a quarrel.
39 She grabs him by the hair
and bends down his face and drinks from his mouth;
she pounces on him and bites him
here and there, crazed with passion.
40 Resting on the chest of the man she loves,
she raises his head and bites him on the neck
with the ‘garland of jewels’
or any other bite she knows.
41 When she sees the man, even in the daytime,
in the midst of a group of people, displaying the mark
that she herself made on him, she laughs,
unnoticed by the others.
42 Then, pretending to wrinkle her face,
and pretending to rebuke the man,
as if in jealousy, she displays
the marks made on her own body.
43 When two people behave in this way
with modesty and concern for one another’s feelings,
their love will never wane,
not even in a hundred years.
CHAPTER SIX
[13] Varieties of Sexual Positions
1 At the moment of passion, in a coupling where the man is larger than the woman, a ‘doe’ positions herself in such a way as to stretch herself open inside. 2And in a coupling where the man is smaller, an ‘elephant cow’ contracts herself inside. 3Where the union is in harmony, she just lies flat on her back. 4What has been said of these two women also applies to the ‘mare’. 5As she is doing this, the woman receives the man inside her. 6Sex tools may also be used, especially in a coupling where the man is smaller than the woman.
7 A ‘doe’ generally has three positions to choose from: the ‘wide open’, the ‘yawning’, or the ‘Junoesque’. 8Her head thrown down, her pelvis raised up, she is ‘wide open’. 9This position must allow a way for the man to slide back. 10Without lowering her thighs, suspending them while spreading them wide apart, she receives him in the ‘yawning’ position. 11Parting her thighs around his sides, at the same time she pulls her knees back around her own sides, in the ‘Junoesque’* position, which can
only be done with practice. 12This position can also be used in the coupling in which the man is largest.
13 She receives him with the ‘cup’ in a coupling when the man is smaller, 14and even in the coupling when he is smallest. An ‘elephant cow’ 15may use the ‘cup’, the ‘squeeze’, the ‘circle’, and the ‘mare’s trap’. 16In the ‘cup’, both partners stretch out both of their two legs straight. 17There are two variants: the ‘cup lying on the side’ or ‘the cup supine’, according to the way the act is done. 18But if he is lying on his side, he should have the woman lie on her right side; this applies to everyone.* 19If, as soon as he has penetrated her in the ‘cup’, he squeezes her two thighs together tightly, it becomes the ‘squeeze’. 20If she then crosses her thighs, it becomes the ‘circle’. 21In the ‘mare’s trap’, which can only be done with practice, she grasps him, like a mare, so tightly that he cannot move.* 22This is generally employed among the women of Andhra. Those are the forms of the sexual positions according to the followers of Babhravya.
23 Now for those of Suvarnanabha: 24When both thighs of the woman are raised, it is called the ‘curve’. 25When the man holds her legs up, it is the ‘yawn’. 26When he does that but also flexes her legs at the knees, it is the ‘high-squeeze’. 27When he does that but stretches out one of her feet, it is the ‘half-squeeze’. 28When one of her feet is placed on the man’s shoulder and the other is stretched out, and they alternate again and again, this is called ‘splitting the bamboo’. 29When one of her legs is raised above her head and the other leg is stretched out, it is called ‘impaling on a stake’, and can only be done with practice. 30When both of her legs are flexed at the knees and placed on her own abdomen, it is the ‘crab’. 31When her thighs are raised and crossed, it is the ‘squeeze’. 32When she opens her knees and crosses her calves, it is the ‘lotus seat’. 33When he turns around with his back to her, and she embraces his back, that is called ‘rotating’, and can only be done with practice.*
34 Suvarnanabha says: ‘One can practise the more unusual techniques in water—standing, sitting, or lying down—because it is easier that way’ 35Vatsyayana says: But this is forbidden, because learned men do not include it in the tradition.*
[14] Unusual Sexual Acts
36 The following are unusual sexual acts. 37Two young people lean against a wall or a pillar or one another and embrace standing up. This is called, ‘sex standing up’. 38He leans against a wall, and she throws the noose of her arms tightly around his neck and sits on the cage made by his two hands clasped together; she wraps the noose of her thighs around his pelvis in a circle and swings from one side to the other by shifting from one foot to the other on the wall. This is called ‘sex suspended’. 39When she gets on the ground on all fours and he mounts her like a bull, that is ‘sex like a cow’. 40In this position, he does on her back the things that he usually does to her chest. 41He may also consider various other special matings of this sort, not previously mentioned, imitating the behaviour of a dog, stag, or billygoat, the donkey’s assault, the cat’s pounce, the tiger’s spring, the elephant’s crush, the boar’s friction, or the stallion’s mounting.
42 With two women who are fond of one another, it is ‘sex in a cluster’. 43Done with many women, it is ‘sex with a herd of cows’. 44Water sports, and sex in the manner of a goat or in the manner of a stag, imitate the acts of animals. 45In regions where there are villages of women, or where women rule, and in the region of Bahlika, many young men serve each woman sexually, as if they were her harem. 46They pleasure her one by one or all together, according to what suits her temperament and is feasible. 47One of the men holds her, while another uses her sexually: one between her legs, another in her mouth, yet another on the middle of her body, and they do these things by turns, alternating, one after the other. 48Like such a woman, a courtesan has sexual relationships with an entire company of men, and men are said to provide sexual services for the women who belong to the king.*
49 The people in the South indulge in ‘sex below’, even in the anus. Those are the unusual sexual acts.
50 We will describe a man’s sexual strokes in the discussion of the woman playing the man’s part.
51 And there are two verses about this:
A man who understands the heart should
enlarge his repertory of techniques for sexual ecstasy
by this means and that, imitating the amorous movements
of tame animals, wild animals, and birds.
52 When these various erotic moods are evoked
according to the particular nature of the woman
and of her region, they inspire
women’s affection, passion, and respect.
CHAPTER SEVEN
[15] Modes of Slapping and
[16] The Accompanying Moaning
1 They say that sex is a form of quarrelling, because the very essence of desire is argument, and its character is perverse. 2Therefore a part of sex is slapping—on the shoulders, on the head, between the breasts, on the back, between the legs, and on the sides—3in four ways: with the back of the hand, the outstretched hand, the fist, or the flat palm of the hand.
4 Moaning arises out of this, since it expresses pain, and moaning takes several forms. 5There are eight kinds of screaming: 6 whimpering, groaning, babbling, crying, panting, shrieking, or sobbing.* 7And there are various sounds that have meaning, such as ‘Mother!’ ‘Stop!’ ‘Let go!’ ‘Enough!’ 8As a major part of moaning she may use, according to her imagination, the cries of the dove, cuckoo, green pigeon, parrot, bee, nightingale, goose, duck, and partridge.
9 He strikes her on her back with his fist when she is seated on his lap. 10Then she pretends to be unable to bear it and beats him in return, while groaning, crying, or babbling. 11When he is inside her, he slaps her with the back of his hand between her breasts, 12gently at first, then harder as she becomes more passionate, until the climax.* 13All the while he is doing this she whimpers or makes any of the other sounds over and over again, with varying intensity, following no rules. 14If she protests, he strikes her on the head until she sobs, using a hand whose fingers are slightly bent, which is called the ‘outstretched hand’. 15At this she babbles with sounds inside her mouth, and she sobs. 16When the sex ends, there is panting and crying. 17Shrieking is a sound like a bamboo splitting, and 18sobbing sounds like a berry falling into water. 19Always, if a man tries to force his kisses and so forth on her, she moans and does the very same thing back to him. 20When a man in the throes of passion slaps a woman repeatedly, she uses words like ‘Stop!’ or ‘Let me go!’ or ‘Enough!’ or ‘Mother!’ and utters screams mixed with laboured breathing, panting, crying, and groaning. As passion nears its end, he beats her between her legs and on her sides, extremely quickly, until the climax.* 21At this, she begins to babble, fast, like a partridge or a goose. Those are the ways of groaning and slapping.
22 And there are two verses about this:
A man’s natural talent* is
his roughness and ferocity,
a woman’s is her lack of power
and her suffering, self-denial, and weakness.
23 Their passion and a particular technique
may sometimes lead them even to exchange roles;
but not for very long. In the end,
the natural roles are re-established.
24 There are four forms of slapping* used in the South that, when added to those already discussed, make eight: the ‘wedge’ applied to the chest, the ‘scissors’ on the head, the ‘drill’ on the cheeks, and the ‘tongs’ on the breasts and sides. Marks made by ‘wedges’ in this way can be seen on the chest of young women there. This is a particular local custom. 25But Vatsyayana says: It is a painful and barbarous thing to do, and not to be sanctioned. 26So, too, one should not take any other custom used in one particular region and use it in another. 27One should also avoid, even in the region where it is used, anything that is dangerous. 28The King of the Cholas killed Chitrasena, a courtesan de l
uxe, by using the ‘wedge’ during sex. 29And the Kuntala king Shatakarni Shatavahana killed his queen, Malayavati, by using the ‘scissor’. 30Naradeva, whose hand was deformed, blinded a dancing-girl in one eye by using the ‘drill’ clumsily.*31 And there are verses about this:
This is no matter for numerical lists
or textbook tables of contents.
For people joined in sexual ecstasy,
passion is what makes things happen.
32 The emotions and fantasies
conjured up in a moment
in the midst of sexual chaos
cannot be imagined even in dreams.
33 For, just as a horse in full gallop,
blinded by the energy of his own speed,
pays no attention to any post
or hole or ditch on the path,
so two lovers blinded by passion
in the friction of sexual battle,
are caught up in their fierce energy
and pay no attention to danger.
34 And so a man who understands the text
will apply it only after he has come to know
the delicacy, ferocity, and strength of his young woman,
and his own strength.
35 The sexual techniques cannot be used
at all times and on all women.
The method must be chosen according to
the part of the body, the region, and the time.
CHAPTER EIGHT
[17] The Woman Playing the Man’s Part
1 When she sees that the man has become exhausted by continuous repetition, but that his passion is still not quenched, she may, with his permission, roll him under her and give him some help by playing the man’s part herself. 2Or she can do it out of her own desire to do something she has only imagined doing, 3or to satisfy the man’s erotic curiosity. 4To play the man’s part, when he is inside her, she gets on top and puts him underneath her. In this way they can make love continually without interrupting the flow of love-making. This is one way of doing it. 5The second way is to begin again and let her do this from the very start. 6With the flowers from her hair strewn about, her laughter interrupted by her hard breathing, pressing his chest hard with her breasts to join her face to his, bending her head down again and again, she does to him in return now whatever acts he demonstrated before. She says, ‘You threw me down, and now I am throwing you down in return’, laughing at him and threatening him and hitting him. And, at the same time, she indicates that she is embarrassed and exhausted and wishes to stop. She moves on him with precisely the sexual strokes* of a man. 7We will explain these:*
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