Kamasutra

Home > Other > Kamasutra > Page 15
Kamasutra Page 15

by Vatsyayana Mallanaga


  34 She collects the man’s discarded, worn-out clothes, both many-coloured and pure white, and gives them as a favour to servants who have done good work, and as gifts that bestow honour, or she uses them for something else. 35She sees to the stocking and use of pots of wines and liquors, and to selling and buying them, and she keeps track of the income and expenditure from them. 36She welcomes and honours the man’s friends in the proper way, with gifts of garlands, scented oils, and betel. 37She serves her father-in-law and mother-in-law, remaining dependent on them; she does not answer back to them, but makes brief, never harsh conversation, not laughing too loud, and treats those who are dear and not dear to them as if they were dear and not dear to her. 38She is moderate in her enjoyments. 39She is considerate to servants, 40but never gives anything to anyone without telling the man. 41She instructs each servant in the limits of his own work and honours him on festival days. That is the life of an only wife.

  [33] Her Behaviour during his Absence

  42 When he is away on a journey, she wears only jewellery that has religious meaning and power, devotes herself to fasts dedicated to the gods, waits for news, and manages the household. 43She sleeps at the feet of older relatives and their people, and accomplishes her tasks with their approval. She goes to great pains to acquire and look after things that the man wants. 44She spends the usual amount on undertakings for daily tasks and special occasions. She also sets her mind on accomplishing those undertakings that he has begun. 45She does not go to the family of her own relatives except on occasions of disaster or celebration. And even there she is chaperoned by the man’s servants, she does not stay too long, and she does not change out of the clothing that she wears when the man is absent. 46She fasts with the permission of older relatives. She increases capital and decreases expenditures as much as possible, by authorizing buying and selling to be accomplished by incorruptible servants carrying out orders.

  47 When he returns, she appears to him first in her ordinary clothes, and she honours the gods and brings gifts. That is her life during his absence.

  48 And there are two verses about this:

  An only wife who wishes for her man’s welfare

  adapts herself to his behaviour,

  whether she is a woman of good family,

  a second-hand woman, or even a courtesan.

  Women of good behaviour

  achieve the goals of religion, power, and pleasure,

  a firm position, and

  a husband without a co-wife.

  CHAPTER TWO

  [34] The Senior Wife

  1 If his wife is frigid or promiscuous or unlucky in love, or if she continually fails to bear a child or gives birth only to daughters, or if the man is fickle, he supplants her with a co-wife.* 2Therefore, from the very start, a woman tries to avoid this by making known her devotion, good character, and cleverness. And if she does not have children, she herself is the one to urge him to take a co-wife. 3And when she is being supplanted, by applying all her powers she establishes her own position as higher.

  4 She looks upon the newly arrived woman as a sister. Making an extraordinary effort, she helps her dress and make herself up in the evening, and she makes sure that the man knows about this. She pays no attention if the other woman becomes hostile or haughty as a result of her luck in love. 5She disregards it if the other woman makes a mistake with her husband. Then, if she thinks, ‘This is a mistake that she herself will also mend’, she advises her carefully about it. 6But she reveals further particulars about it to the man, privately.

  7 She treats the other woman’s children in no special way,* treats her servants with great sympathy and her girlfriends with affection. She does not care too much for her own relatives, and makes an extra fuss over the other woman’s relatives. 8But if she is supplanted by many co-wives, she allies herself with the one just below her. 9She provokes quarrels between the woman whom the man wishes to promote to the favourite and the woman who used to be lucky in love, 10a woman for whom she then shows sympathy. 11By uniting the other co-wives, without actually getting into the argument herself she maligns the one he wants to promote to the favourite. 12But she encourages the other woman to quarrel with the man, egging her on by taking her side. 13And she makes the quarrel grow. 14Or, if she notes that the quarrel is dying down, she herself fans the flames. 15But if she realizes, ‘The man even now inclines to her’, then she herself makes peace between them. That is the life of the senior wife.

  [35] The Junior Wife

  16 The junior wife, however, regards her co-wife like a mother. 17She does not even give anything to her relatives without the other woman’s knowledge. 18She reports her own experiences to her. 19With her permission, she sleeps with the husband. 20She never reports to any other woman what the other woman says. 21She has more regard for the other woman’s children than for her own. 22But privately, she serves the husband more. 23And she does not tell him how she herself suffers from the hostility of the co-wives. 24She tries to get some special secret token of her husband’s esteem, 25and she says, ‘I will live on this, as if it were food to last me on a journey.’ 26But she never talks in public about that, either in boast or in passion, 27for a woman who betrays a secret wins her husband’s loathing. 28Gonardiya says, ‘Out of fear of the senior wife, she seeks only a secret love-token.’

  29 If the senior wife is unlucky in love and has no children, the junior wife pities her and urges the man to pity her. 30But if the junior wife is able to dislodge the senior wife, she assumes the role of the only wife. That is the life of the junior wife.

  [36] The Second-hand Woman

  31 A second-hand woman, however, is a widow who is tormented by the weakness of the senses and so finds, again, a man who enjoys life and is well endowed with good qualities.* 32But the followers of Babhravya say, ‘Since she may at will go away again from him too, thinking, “He is not well endowed with good qualities”, she will then want yet another man.’ 33It is in search of physical pleasure that she tries, again, to find yet another man. 34Gonardiya says, ‘Complete pleasure comes from men’s endowments and capacity for enjoyments; therefore one man differs from another.’* 35Vatsyayana says: It is because his mind is compatible with hers.

  36 With her relatives, she gets the man to provide sufficient funds to cover the cost of such things as drinking parties, picnics, faith offerings, and gifts to honour friends. 37Or she may pay for his jewellery and her own out of her own capital. 38There is no rule about love-gifts. 39If she leaves the man of her own accord, she gives back everything he has given her except for his love-gifts. But if he throws her out, she does not give anything back. 40She takes over his house as if she were the woman in charge, 41but she acts with affection to women of good families, 42with consideration to the servants, always joking, and with great respect for his friends. In the arts,* she has skill and greater knowledge. 43When there are occasions for a quarrel, she herself scolds the man. 44She practises the sixty-four arts of love in private. And she herself does favours for the co-wives. She gives jewellery to their children and makes little ornaments for them, and clothing, with care, but she expects those children to serve her as if she were their master. She gives even more things to his entourage and his crowd of friends. And she is always in the mood for company, for drinking parties, picnics, festivals, and amusements. That is the life of the second-hand woman.

  [37] The Wife Unlucky in Love

  45 But a woman who is unlucky in love and oppressed by rivalry with her co-wives seeks support from the wife who seems to be chosen most often by their husband. She shows that chosen wife the knowledge of the arts that can be revealed. Because she is unlucky in love, she has no secrets.* 46She performs the functions of a nurse for the man’s children. 47She wins over his friends and then gets them to tell him about her devotion to him. 48She leads the way in religious duties and in vows and fasts. 49She is considerate to the servants and has no more regard for herself than for them. 50In bed, she requites the man’s pass
ion in a way that suits him. 51She does not scold him or show him any contrariness. 52She restores his desire for any woman with whom he may have quarrelled. 53If he desires some woman who must remain concealed, she brings the other woman to him and hides her. 54She takes pains to make the man regard her as a chaste and undeceiving wife. That is the life of the wife unlucky in love.*

  [38] Women of the Harem

  55 The life of the women of the harem, too, can be surmised from the preceding sections.

  56 The woman chamberlain or bodyguard* brings their garlands, scented oils, and clothes to the king, saying, ‘The queens have sent these.’ 57The king takes these and gives them back to the queens as a gift, like the leftovers* of a deity. 58In the afternoon, he goes, carefully dressed, to see, all together, all the women of the harem, who are also well dressed. 59He chats and jokes with them, giving to each one the place and honour due to the time she has served in the harem and her worth. 60Immediately after that, he sees, in exactly the same way, the second-hand women, 61and then the courtesans and the dancing girls who belong to the harem. 62Their places are in the inner rooms assigned to them.

  63 Now, when the king arises from his afternoon siesta, the women attendants who keep track of the roster come to him followed by the servants of the woman whose turn it is to spend the night with the king, of the woman who has been passed over on her night, and of the woman who is in her fertile season. And they present the king with scented oils, each marked with the stamp of the woman’s seal ring, and tell him whose turn it is to sleep with him that night and who is in her fertile season. 64Whichever one among these oils the king takes, he announces that the woman who owns it will sleep with him that night.

  65 At festivals, and at concerts and plays, all of the women of the harem are appropriately honoured and served with drinks. 66They do not go out, nor do women from outside enter, except for those whose purity is well known. And so the work is carried out undisturbed. Those are the women of the harem.

  A Man’s Management of Many Women

  67 And there are verses about this:

  But a man who has collected many wives

  must treat them equally.

  He should not treat them with contempt,

  nor put up with their deceptions.

  68 Whatever sort of love-play one woman favours,

  or whatever peculiarity her body may have,

  or whatever reproach she lets slip in pillow talk—

  he must not tell that to the other women.

  69 He should never give women their head

  in a cause against a co-wife,

  and if one woman begins to slander another in this way,

  he should charge her herself with those faults.

  70 He should keep his women happy,

  one by confiding in her privately,

  another by honouring her in public,

  yet another with gifts as tokens of his esteem.

  71 He should enchant each one individually,

  with picnics, luxuries, gifts,

  honours to her family, and with

  the pleasures of love in bed.

  72 A young woman who controls her temper

  and behaves according to the textbook

  puts her husband in her power

  and lords it over her co-wives.

  BOOK FIVE · OTHER MEN’S WIVES

  CHAPTER ONE

  [39] On the Characteristic Natures of Women and Men

  1 The reasons for having affairs with the wives of other men have already been discussed. 2A man must consider, from the very beginning, whether such women can be won, and without disaster, and whether they are eligible for sex, and what their future will be, and how they behave. 3For when a man sees that his desire is progressing from one stage to the next stage, then, in order to ward off these fatal blows to his own body, he should make advances to other men’s wives. 4Now, there are ten stages of desire, 5and their signs are: love at first sight, the attachment of the mind and heart, the stimulation of the imagination, broken sleep, weight loss, revulsion against sensual objects, the loss of all sense of shame, madness, loss of consciousness, and death. 6Scholars say: ‘In considering an affair with another man’s wife, a young woman’s bearing and telltale signs are the basis on which to judge her character, honesty, purity, accessibility, and the fierceness of her sexual energy.’ 7Vatsyayana says: Because relying on a woman’s bearing and telltale signs is fallible, a man should understand a woman’s conduct from her gestures and signals.

  8Gonikaputra says, ‘A woman desires any attractive man she sees, and, in the same way, a man desires a woman. But, after some consideration, the matter goes no farther.’ 9A woman is different in this regard: 10A woman does not consider religion or the violation of religion; she just desires. But consideration of some other factor keeps her from making advances. 11And by her very nature she resists a man who makes advances to her, even if she desires to respond. 12If he makes advances to her again and again, however, she gives in. 13A man, by contrast, considers the stability of religion and the conventions of noble people and turns back even when he desires. 14And even when he is pursued he does not give in, because he is aware of these considerations. 15He makes advances for no special reason, and even when he has made his advances, he does not make them again. And he becomes indifferent toward her when she has given in. 16It is commonly said: ‘A man scorns a woman who is easy to get, but desires a woman who is hard to get.’

  [40] Causes of Resistance

  17Here are the causes of a woman’s resistance: 18love for her husband, 19regard for her children, 20the fact that she is past her prime, 21or overwhelmed by unhappiness, 22or unable to get away; 23or she gets angry and thinks, ‘He is propositioning me in an insulting way’; 24or she cannot imagine being with him, thinking, ‘He is inscrutable’; 25or she fears, ‘He will soon go away. There is no future in it; his thoughts are attached to someone else’; 26or she is nervous, thinking, ‘He does not conceal his signals’; 27or she thinks, ‘His affection is all for his friends, and his regard is only for them’; 28or she fears, ‘His advances are just a tease’; 29or she is diffident, thinking, ‘How glamorous he is’; 30or if she is a ‘doe’ she fears, ‘His sexual energy is too fierce’, or ‘He is too strong’;* 31or she becomes shy when she thinks, ‘He is a man-about-town, accomplished in all the arts’;* 32or she feels, ‘He has always treated me just as a friend’; 33or she cannot bear him, thinking, ‘He does not know the right time and place’, 34or she does not respect him, thinking, ‘He is an object of contempt’; 35or she despises him when she thinks, ‘Even though I have given him signals, he does not understand’; 36or if she is an ‘elephant cow’ she thinks, ‘He is a “hare”, of dull sexual energy’; 37or she feels sympathy for him and thinks, ‘I would not want anything unpleasant to happen to him because of me’; 38or she becomes depressed when she sees her own shortcomings, 39or afraid when she thinks, ‘If I am discovered, my own people will throw me out’; 40or scornful, thinking, ‘He has grey hair’; 41or she worries, ‘My husband has employed him to test me’; 42or she has regard for religion.*

  43A man should eliminate, from the very beginning, whichever of these causes for rejection he detects in his own situation. 44If it is connected with her nobility, he excites more passion. 45If it is a matter of apparent impossibility, he shows her ways to manage it. 46If the problem is her respect for him, he becomes very intimate with her. 47If it stems from her contempt, he demonstrates his extraordinary pride and his erudition. 48If it comes from his contempt, he prostrates himself before her. 49If she is afraid, he reassures her.

  [41] Men who are Successful with Women

  50The following men are generally successful with women: a man who knows the Kamasutra, a good storyteller, a man who has been close to the woman from childhood, a man in the prime of youth, a man who can gain a woman’s trust by engaging her in such things as games, a man who carries out her commands, a good conversationalist, a man who does what the woman l
ikes, a man who used to be the messenger of another man, a man who knows a woman’s vulnerable spots,* a man who is sought by a woman of the highest class, a man secretly involved with the woman’s girlfriend, a man famous for his luck in love, a man who grew up with the woman, a sexy next-door neighbour, a sexy servant, the husband of her foster-sister, a newly engaged man, a generous man who loves picnics and theatrical plays, a man so strong and hot that people call him a bull, an impetuous man, a brave man, a man who surpasses her husband in learning, good looks, good qualities, and enjoyments, a man who dresses well and lives well.

  [42] Women who can be Won without Effort

  51Just as a man judges his chances of success from considering his own qualities, so he should judge them from considering the woman’s qualities, too.* 52The following are women who can be had without any effort, who can be had merely by making advances:* a woman who stands at the door; a woman who looks out from her rooftop porch onto the main street; a woman who hangs about the house of the young man who is her neighbour; a woman who stares constantly; a woman who, when someone looks at her, looks sideways; a woman who has been supplanted by a co-wife for no cause; a woman who hates her husband; a woman who is hated; a woman who lacks restraint; a woman who has no children; 53a woman who has always lived in the house of her relatives; a woman whose children have died; a woman who is fond of society; a woman who shows her love; the wife of an actor;* a young woman whose husband has died; a poor woman fond of enjoying herself; the wife of the oldest of several brothers; a very proud woman who has an inadequate husband; a woman who is proud of her skills and distressed by her husband’s foolishness, lack of distinction, or greediness; 54a woman who, when she was a virgin, was courted by a man who made a great effort but somehow did not get her and now woos her again; a woman whose intelligence, nature, wisdom, perception, and personality are similar to those of the would-be lover; a woman who is by nature given to taking sides; a woman who has been dishonoured by her husband when she has done nothing wrong; a woman who is put down by women whose beauty and so forth are the same as hers; a woman whose husband travels a lot; the wife of a man who is jealous, putrid, too pure, impotent, a procrastinator, unmanly, a hunchback, a dwarf, deformed, a jeweller, a villager, bad-smelling, sick, or old.

 

‹ Prev