[18] A Man’s Sexual Strokes
8 When the woman is lying on the bed, the man distracts her attention, as it were, with conversation and loosens her waistband. If she argues against this, he overwhelms her by kissing her cheeks.
9When he becomes hard, he touches her here and there. 10If it is the first time that they have been together, he caresses her between her tightly closed thighs. 11And if she is a virgin, 12he caresses her breasts, which she has tightly pressed together, and her hands, armpits, shoulders, and neck. 13If she is a loose woman, he does what is suitable and feasible. He catches hold of her by her hair, mercilessly, to kiss her, and cups his fingers to grasp her chin. 14This embarrasses his partner and makes her close her eyes if it is the first time they have been together, or if she is a virgin. 15And thinking, ‘How can I arouse her passion for me?’ he observes what she does when they are united in love-making. 16When he is moving inside her, and her eyes roll when she feels him in certain spots, he presses her in just those spots.* Suvarnanabha says, ‘This is the secret of young women.’ 17The signs that a woman is reaching her climax are that her limbs become limp, her eyes close, she loses all sense of shame, and she takes him deeper and deeper inside her. 18She flails her hands about, sweats, bites, will not let him get up, kicks him, and continues to move over the man even after he has finished making love. 19Before he enters her, he puts his hand, like an elephant’s trunk, inside her and agitates her until she becomes soft and wet, and then he enters her.
20 A man’s sexual strokes are ‘moving around’, ‘churning’, the ‘dagger’, ‘grinding down’, ‘pressing’, the ‘blast of wind’, the ‘boar’s thrust’, the ‘bull’s thrust’, ‘frolicking like a sparrow’, and the ‘cup’. 21Regular, straight sex is called ‘moving around’. 22When he takes his sexual organ in his hand and rotates it in all directions, it is called ‘churning’. 23When he lowers her pelvis and thrusts into her from above, it is called ‘the dagger’. 24When he raises her pelvis and thrusts into her from below, violently, it is called ‘grinding down’. 25When he stabs her deeply and remains there, pressing her, for a long time, that is called ‘pressing’. 26When he pulls out quite far and then plunges down into her fast and hard, it is called the ‘blast of wind’. 27When he reams her many times just on one side, that is the ‘boar’s thrust’. 28When he does this to both sides, alternating, it is the ‘bull’s thrust’. 29When he enters her once and, without pulling out entirely, thrusts into her two, three, four times, and does this repeatedly, it is called ‘frolicking like a sparrow’. 30The ‘cup’, which has been described, is the method used when passion is ending.* 31A man should choose from these sexual strokes and use the one particularly suited for each woman.
32 But when the woman plays the man’s part, there are, in addition, the ‘tongs’, the ‘spinning top’, and the ‘swing’. 33When she grasps him in the ‘mare’s trap’ position and draws him more deeply into her or contracts around him and holds him there for a long time, that is the ‘tongs’. 34When she keeps him inside her and twists around him like a wheel around an axle, that is called the ‘spinning top’, and can only be done with practice.* 35When she is doing this, her partner thrusts up his own pelvis under her. 36When she twists around him while swinging her pelvis back and forth in all directions, that is the ‘swing’.* 37She may rest, with him still firmly within her, by laying her forehead on his forehead. 38And when she has rested, the man turns over on top again. That is how the woman plays the man’s part.
39 And there are verses about this:
Even when a sensual woman
covers up her own feelings and hides her signals,
she unveils her own feelings completely
when her passion drives her to get on top.
40 A man can learn everything
—a woman’s personality,
what sort of sex excites her—
from the ways she moves on top.
41 But he should not make a woman act the man’s part
if she has her period, or has recently given birth,
or if she is a ‘doe’ woman, or pregnant,
or very fat.
CHAPTER NINE
[19] Oral Sex
1 There are two sorts of persons of the third nature, in the form of a woman and in the form of a man. 2The one in the form of a woman imitates a woman’s dress, chatter, grace, emotions, delicacy, timidity, innocence, frailty, and bashfulness. 3The act that should be done in the sexual organ is done in her mouth, and they call that ‘oral sex’.* 4She gets her sexual pleasure and erotic arousal as well as her livelihood from this, 5living like a courtesan. That is the person of the third nature in the form of a woman.
6 The one in the form of a man, however, conceals her desire when she wants a man and makes her living as a masseur. 7As she massages the man, she caresses his two thighs with her limbs, as if she were embracing him. 8Then she becomes more boldly intimate and familiar and touches the places where his thighs join his torso, and his sexual organ. 9If she notices that he has become hard as a result of this, she stimulates him by using her hand as a churn, pretending to tease him about how easily he becomes excited and laughing at him. 10If the man does not urge her on, even when he has given this clear sign and even when it is obvious that he is aroused, she makes advances to him on her own. 11If the man urges her to go on, she argues with him and only unwillingly continues.
12 Oral sex involves eight acts, one after the other: 13the ‘casual’, ‘biting the sides’, ‘the outer tongs’, ‘the inner tongs’, ‘kissing’, ‘polishing’, ‘sucking the mango’, and ‘swallowing’. 14As she finishes each one, she expresses her wish to stop, 15and when each one is finished, the man asks her to do the next one, and when that one is finished, the one after that. 16In the ‘casual’ act, she holds it with her hand, places it on her lips, pierces her mouth with it and moves it back and forth. 17She bares the glans with her hand, nibbles at its sides with her two lips, keeping her teeth away, and she tantalizes him by saying, ‘This is as far I as go.’ That is ‘biting the sides’. 18When the man urges her to do more, she closes her lips, presses them down on the glans and kisses him as if drawing it out. That is called ‘the outer tongs’. 19Begging her to go on doing this, he pushes a little deeper into her mouth, and she squeezes the glans with her lips and then spits it out. That is called ‘the inner tongs’. 20Then she holds it in her hand and grasps it as if it were his lip. That is ‘kissing’. 21After she has done that, she licks it all over with the tip of her tongue and then pierces the glans. That is called ‘polishing’. 22When it is in precisely this state, driven halfway inside her mouth through the force of passion, she mercilessly presses down, and presses down again, and lets it go. That is called ‘sucking the mango’. 23Only when the man asks for it does she swallow it up and press until the climax. That is called ‘swallowing’. 24Groaning and slapping may also be used, as they are called for. That is oral sex with a person of the third nature.
25 Promiscuous women, loose women, servant girls, and masseuses also perform oral sex. 26Scholars say: ‘But it should not be done, because it is opposed by the moral code and is not done in proper society, and because if a man has contact again with the mouth of these women, he himself may be troubled.’ 27But Vatsyayana says: This is not a mistake for a man who loves courtesans, though it should also be avoided for other reasons. 28Therefore people in the East do not make love with women who practise oral sex. 29And the people of Ahichattra do not make love with courtesans, but when they do, they avoid the act of the mouth with these women. 30The men of Saketa do not worry about anything when they make love. 31The men of the city* do not indulge in oral sex themselves, 32but the people of Surasena do everything, without the slightest hesitation. 33For this is what they say: ‘For who can have any faith in women’s good character, purity, good behaviour, good practices, reliability, or words? For by their very nature they have a dirty gaze, but they need not be rejected. Therefore the religious tradition tells us to
regard them as pure. And so they say:
“A calf is unpolluted while the milk is flowing,
as is a dog when it catches a wild animal,
a bird when it knocks down a fruit,
and a woman’s mouth in the ecstasy of sex.” ’*
34 Vatsyayana says: Since learned men disagree and there are discrepancies in what the religious texts say, one should act according to the custom of the region and one’s own disposition and confidence.
35 And there are verses about this:
Even young men, servants
who wear polished earrings,
indulge in oral sex
only with certain men.
36 And, in the same way, certain men-about-town
who care for one another’s welfare
and have established trust
do this service for one another.
37 Sometimes men even perform
this act upon women,
transposing the procedure
for kissing a mouth.
38 Sometimes a man and woman may turn their bodies
head to foot, so that they can make love
to one another at the same time;
and that is known as ‘sex in the manner of crows.’*
39 It is for this that courtesans
reject virtuous, clever, generous men,
and become attached to scoundrels,
servants, elephant-drivers, and so forth.
40 But a wise Brahmin, or a minister of state
or a man on whom the king depends
or any man in whom people confide,
should not indulge in oral sex.
41 For the statement that ‘There is a text for this’
does not justify a practice. People should realize
that the contents of the texts apply in general,
but each actual practice is for one particular region.
42 Medical science, for example,
recommends cooking even dog meat,
for juice and virility;
but what intelligent person would eat it?
43 There are some men,
and there are certain sorts of regions,
and there are times when
these practices are not without their uses.
44 Therefore, when a man has considered
the region, and the time, and the technique,
and the textbook teachings, and himself,
he may—or may not—make use of these practices.
45 But because this matter is secret,
and because the mind and heart are fickle,
who could know who should do what,
and when and how?
CHAPTER TEN
[20] The Start and Finish of Sex
1 In a room of his house dedicated to sex, a room decorated, full of flowers, and fragrant with perfume and incense, the man-about-town, surrounded by his friends and servants, receives the woman, when she has bathed and adorned herself and has drunk the proper amount; he puts her at ease and offers her another drink. 2He sits down on her right side and touches her hair, the fringe of her sari, and the knot of her waistband. He embraces her gently with his left arm to prepare to make love.
3 They talk together about things
that they have done together before,
joking and titillating, touching upon
all sorts of things hidden and obscene.
4 Then there may be singing and instrumental music, with or without dancing, and conversation about the fine arts, and then he entices her with another drink. 5When her feelings for him have been aroused, he sends away the other people, giving them flowers, scented oils, and betel, and when they are alone together he makes advances to her with the embraces and so forth that have already been described, beginning with loosening the knot of her waistband. And that is the beginning of sex.
6 As for the end of sex, when their passion has ebbed, the man and woman go out separately to the bathing place, embarrassed, not looking at one another, as if they were not even acquainted with one another. When they return, they sit down in their usual places without embarrassment, and chew some betel, and he himself rubs sandalwood paste or some other scented oil on her body. 7He embraces her with his left arm and, holding a cup in his hand, persuades her to drink. Or both of them may drink some water or eat some bite-sized snacks or something else, according to their temperament and inclination: 8fruit juice, grilled foods, sour rice-broth, soups with small pieces of roasted meats, mangoes, dried meat, citrus fruits with sugar, according to the tastes of the region. As he tastes each one he tells her, ‘This one is sweet’ or ‘delicate’ or ‘soft’, and offers it to her. 9Sometimes they sit on the rooftop porch to enjoy the moonlight, and tell stories that suit their mood. As she lies in his lap, looking at the moon, he points out the rows of the constellations to her; they look at the Pleiades, the Pole Star, and the garland of Seven Sages that form the Great Bear. That is the end of sex.
10 And there are these verses about this:
Even at the end, love
enhanced by thoughtful acts
and words and deeds exchanged in confidence
gives rise to the highest ecstasy.
11 Responding to their feelings about themselves,
inspiring mutual love,
at one moment turning away in anger,
at another moment looking with love,
12 they play the ‘plough-handle’ game, sing,
and dance in the Lata way;
they look at the circle of the moon
with eyes moist and flickering with passion.
13 They talk about it all, about the desires they felt
when they first saw one another long ago,
and the unhappiness they felt
when they were later separated.
And when they finish talking
they embrace and kiss with passion.
Through these and other feelings
the young couple’s passion grows again.
[21] Different Kinds of Sex
14 The different kinds of sex are ‘passionate sex’, ‘excitable passion’, ‘artificial passion’, ‘transferred passion’, ‘sex with a coarse servant’, ‘sex with a peasant’, and ‘unfettered sex’. 15When the passion of a man and a woman grows great from the moment that they see one another, and they get together only with great effort, or one of them returns after a long journey, or they reunite after a separation caused by a quarrel—that is ‘passionate sex’; 16this kind of sex goes on according to their inclination, until the climax. 17When two people begin with average passion but then become more passionate toward one another, that is an ‘excitable passion’; 18in this kind of sex, the man stimulates the passion, kindling it and rekindling it with those of the sixty-four techniques that suit their inclinations. 19When two people make love for the sake of a particular goal or are attached to others, that is an ‘artificial passion’; 20in this kind of sex, the man employs all together the techniques learned from the textbooks. 21But when a man, placing in his mind another woman who is dear to his heart, superimposes or transfers her onto his actual partner from the moment he begins to make love until he reaches a climax, that is a ‘transferred passion’. 22‘Sex with a coarse servant’* takes place with a lower-class female water-carrier or house-servant, until the climax; 23in this kind of sex, he does not bother with the acts of civility. 24Similarly, ‘sex with a peasant’ takes place between a courtesan and a country bumpkin, until the climax, 25or between a man-about-town and women from the countryside, cow-herding villages, or countries beyond the borders. 26‘Unfettered sex’ takes place between two people who trust one another, since each does whatever the other likes. Those are the different kinds of sex.
[22] Lovers’ Quarrels
27 Now, a woman who has grown fond of a man cannot bear it if he utters the name of a co-wife or casually refers to her or accidentally calls the woman by the other woman’s name,* or if the man plays her false. 28The
n there is a great quarrel, with weeping, anguish, tossing hair, slaps, falling from the bed or chair onto the ground, tearing off garlands and jewellery, and sleeping on the floor. 29When she does this, he remains calm in his own mind and heart and wins her over with appropriate words of conciliation or by falling at her feet, and he lifts her back onto the bed. 30She answers his words by getting even angrier, grabbing his hair and pulling his face up, kicking him once, twice, three times, on his arms, head, chest, or back. Then she goes to the door and sits down there and bursts into tears.31 Dattaka says, ‘But even if she is very angry indeed, she does not actually go beyond the door, because then she would be at fault.’ For when she has been properly won over, still at that spot, she wishes for reconciliation; and even when she has been reconciled, she pummels him, as it were, with harsh words, but she wants to make love with her reconciled lover, and the man embraces her. 32When, however, a woman who lives in her own house has quarrelled for some reason, she approaches the man with the same sorts of actions. 33Then the man engages libertines, panders, and clowns to assuage her anger, and they are the ones who win her over, and the ones with whom she goes to his house, and there she stays. Those are the lovers’ quarrels.
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