Kamasutra

by Vatsyayana Mallanaga

25 He should not pursue two women in the same house.

  27 Even if she is very easy to get, he should not make love to a woman in a house where the woman’s husband has been seen to make love to another woman.

  28 A man who decides, ‘I am not able to do it in this case’, will not even think about a woman who is worried about her lover, well-guarded by men with weapons, afraid of her husband, or supervised by her mother-in-law.

  5 Her responses to his advances are hollow, without any meaning.

  6 And so, when one lover breaks the intimacy, the other lover makes up again.

  8 And when she is scorned, she makes advances to him.

  10 If she lets him, she is not a tease.

  13 She is just pretending to be asleep.

  22 If that servant is seducing her, the man must realize, ‘She is staying with him.’

  23 When the messenger is trying to win her, she says, ‘That must not be.’ And so the man must debate: ‘Is she telling the true reasons for her resistance, or is this some sort of deception?’

  24 Their signs indicate their feelings.

  25 He does not worry, ‘Will I win her, or not?’ There are two kinds of women, candid and not candid. To show that this rule does not apply to the ones who are candid, he says the next verse.

  27 She receives signals that are not candid, but she signals a candid answer.

  28 Of the two types of women just mentioned, candid women ‘can be had merely by making advances’ [5.1.52].

  3 ‘A husband like that’ is ugly and so forth.

  7 But it is a flaw if he is a ‘stallion’.

  8 For a ‘mare’ or ‘elephant cow’, there is a no flaw if he is a ‘bull’ or a ‘stallion’.

  10 There are three kinds of sexual moves, at the beginning, middle, and end of love-making.

  12 ‘Even though other women are in love with him, when he saw you …’

  14 (1) Ahalya* was the wife of Gotama; the king of the gods fell in love with her and she desired him. (2) The fire-priest instructed a woman in the fire ritual. Agni, the god of fire, so desired her that he took on a form and arose out of the fire altar. When she became pregnant, her father-in-law, fearing a stain on the family, abandoned her in the forest. She gave birth to a son, whom the general of the Shabaras raised as his own child. That son, in his childhood, played among the herds of sheep and goats and wandered around with them. By drinking their milk he became very strong, so strong that, even though he was just a little child, he killed goats and sheep with his bare hands. And for that reason, the general gave him the appropriate name of Avimaraka [’Sheep-killer’]. When he reached the prime of his youth, one day an elephant attacked the daughter of a king who was sojourning in the forest, and he killed the elephant and saved her. After that she fell in love with him and of her own will gave him her hand in marriage. These stories are relevant to a discussion of the seduction of other men’s wives.

  15 The sixty-four techniques are those of Panchala, singing and so forth.* She says, ‘He has such luck in love that he was desired even by a man.’ Even if it did not happen it has become as if it had happened.

  19 For she thinks, ‘Through this device she will say something connected with the man.’

  20 For she thinks, ‘She will tell some secret.’

  21 For she thinks, ‘Perhaps she will tell a story about the man, in order to talk about fickleness.’

  23 She gives her bangles or upper garments.

  24 She remembers her, saying, ‘Why did you not come today?’

  26 The messenger has pursued the conversation by saying, ‘Your face, even just hearing someone mention your name, makes him happy.’

  36 Such women are not familiar with the man.

  38 The cupped hands are intended to give rise to the impression, ‘This man is intent on nothing but propitiating you in this way.’

  44 But they should not meet in the house of someone such as a woman friend, because their arrival and departure are not secure, since she is not always at home.

  54 She says, ‘You have even called your wife by my name! It would be all right to address her in this way if she were beautiful.’ She gives him something: such as betel, a chaplet, or areca nuts, to declare her passion.

  55 The man makes advances to her, if he wants to make love with her.

  58 She sends signals in order to indicate her own desires. She gets the wife angry, in order to show that she, too, is jealous, saying, ‘This man is fickle and is attached to another woman. How is it that you do not get angry?’ She marks the wife with the traces of nails and teeth to announce her own longing to make love. The wife is the foolish messenger, because she does not understand the purpose of a messenger.

  64 She inspires hatred by praising his good looks and so forth, as has been said: ‘She inspires regret’ [5.4.3]. And she describes his sexual charms, as has been said: ‘She tells about the man’s accomplishments, how well he suits her, his sexual moves’ [5.4.10]. She reveals the enjoyments of sex, as has been said: ‘She speaks of the man’s sexual powers, his knowledge of the sixty-four arts, and his luck in love’ [5.4.15]. She describes these not just in front of the woman herself, but in front of her friends, too.

  65 She says, ‘Listen, you are lucky in love, but this is an extraordinary thing’ [5.4.12]. As has been said: ‘She describes how he has made love secretly with some praiseworthy woman, which happened or did not happen in the past’ [5.4.15]. She describes his constancy toward the woman.

  13 The king sends her to a woman to whom he wishes to make love.

  20 The man makes love to her with the sexual act that suits her.

  24 The man may be frightened of the king’s court.

  26 He makes her into a servant girl because a woman who has been publicly ruined is a kind of courtesan. First he makes her into a common woman and then he introduces her into the harem gradually, not violently or right away, so that no one will think, ‘He did this by a trick.’

  27 This pair of methods is to be used on women who have not abandoned their families. They are used by the king’s sons, but not by the king.

  29 In Gurjurat there is a place named Kotta, whose king, named Abhira, went to another man’s house in order to sleep with the wife of Vasumitra, the head warrior. There, a guard employed by his brother, who deserved the kingdom, killed him. Jayasena the king of Varanasi had gone into another man’s house to make love with that man’s wife.

  33 But the real purpose is sex.

  37 The six enemies are desire, anger, greed, pride, intoxication, and joy.

  2 By imagining a man, they experience a heightened emotion that gives extreme satisfaction. These things have a form just like the male sexual organ: the bulbs of arrowroot, plantain, and so forth; the roots of coconut palms, breadfruit, and so forth; and the fruits of the bottle-gourd, cucumber, and so forth.

  3 These statues have indistinct sexual characteristics because they do not have beards yet; they have the bodies of men but the appearance of women.

  4 They strap on an artificial instrument made of wood to achieve their satisfaction. This is known as the technique for the harem.

  5 Men who cannot get a woman relieve their desires in a thigh or hand, and so forth, moving it back and forth; or in a sheep, mare, and so forth; or simply by using their hand to churn their instrument with a ‘lion’s pounce’, as it is said:

  Sitting with legs stretched out at right angles to one another,

  propping yourself up with your two hands planted

  on the ground between them, rub it between your arms;

  that is the way you do the ‘lion’s pounce’.

  And if someone should object, ‘It goes against religion to shed your semen in the wrong places’, you reply, ‘What about wet-dreams? The rule on expiation and restoration for that applies to this case.’

  9 An example of a false representation would be saying that the harem is easy to enter when it is not. This might corrupt what has not been corrupted and put people in dan
ger.

  13 He says, ‘Through such and such a connection, you are my brother or my sister’s husband!’ He becomes friendly with them, so that they will be slack in guarding against him.

  14 He fakes the sorrow of failing to be with the servant girl.

  19 He leaves a ring with his name on it, marked by the traces of his nails and teeth.

  24 Some people make the body disappear, but not the shadow. But only those who make both disappear are not seen.

  26 In these ways, he can enter everywhere and abduct anyone.

  28 They know one another’s secrets and think, ‘What one of us wants to do, all of us should arrange to do together.’ They make the others defect so that they too will be in the same situation. Their single purpose is shattering their fidelity.

  38 They conceal a young man who is capable of the sexual act.

  44 Corrupt people cause ruin.

  4 Men become attached to a woman who lets them think, ‘She is in love with me’, but not to women who are driven by money.

  9 Policemen and officers of the courts ward off her losses and get money for her. Fortune-tellers bring men to her and urge them on by saying, ‘If you make love with this woman, your fortunes will flourish.’ Bold men and heroes ward off her losses and get money for her. Men who know the same things love her and get money for her. Men who have a grasp of the arts learn the arts from the woman and publicize them, which brings lovers to her. The panders and the others bring in money through their own work and bring lovers to her through their free access to the houses of other men.

  10 These lovers are for money and not for love, but their money can be used for sexual pleasure and fame. An independent man is not dependent on his elders. A man who has just come of age is not too old. When she wants something from a man whose source of income is not in public view, because it comes from some other region, even when he gives her money, it is a useless gift. An official can give her money derived from whatever money he officiates over. A man whose wealth comes easily, either through an inheritance or by finding some treasure or through a favour from the king, gives it away easily, too. A jealous rival gives her a lot of money in competition with another lover. A tax-collector or usurer has a steady income. A man who believes he is lucky in love, although he is unlucky in love, does not want people to think that he is unlucky in love, and so he gives the woman a lot of money in the course of getting her away from another man. An impotent man, a non-man, gives her a lot of money in order to proclaim his virility. A man who wants people to think he is a real man gives her a lot of money when she asks for it. When two men equal in family, knowledge, wealth, or age are rivals, each thinks, ‘That man who is my equal gave a lot to that courtesan; I will give her more.’ Such a lover keeps spending more, like a mare who always wants to be in front. If a man has the ear of a king or minister of state, even if he himself does not give her anything, he can get the king or minister to give her something, by saying, ‘This is the woman I love.’ A fatalist thinks, ‘My fortune is drying up because my good luck is drying up, not because it is spent on pleasures’, and so he gives her a lot of money. A man who transgresses his gurus’ words gives her a lot even though he is doing wrong. A rich only son is never restrained by his parents even if he gives her a lot, because they do not want him to go anywhere else. A man whose sexual desire is concealed thinks, ‘People must not find out’, but since he is tormented by desire, he gives her a lot. A hero makes friends and makes money. A doctor, even if he does not give the courtesan money, gives, in fact, by healing her when she is ill.

  12 The man’s good qualities are described here in keeping with the statement above [at 1.5.28]: ‘We will explain the good qualities and lack of good qualities in both [kinds of lovers] in the discussion of courtesans.’ V calls him ‘the man’ here, and not ‘the lover’, to apply more generally; he also gives him other names, such as ‘suitor’ in his relationship to a virgin, ‘successful suitor’ in his relationship to a second-hand woman, ‘paramour’ in his relationship to the wife of another man, and ‘lover’ in his relationship to a courtesan. The man is learned, in logic and so forth. He knows all customs, even the customs of heretics. He composes poems in Sanskrit and other languages. He is skilled in crafts such as sketching. He does services for those who are mature in knowledge or in years. It is said: ‘The qualities of a man of endurance are heroism, indignation, speed, and cleverness.’ A Brahmin who does not drink makes a lot of profits. A ‘bull’ is sexually potent. The man flirts by glossing over the flaws in the condition of the women’s bodies.

  13 Here, too, V says ‘the woman’, not ‘the courtesan’. Auspicious marks indicate that she will have the good fortune to be loved. A woman inclined to love and sex is fond of both external foreplay and the sexual act. When a woman with a steady mind decides, ‘This has to be done’, she does it. A woman true to one type has one consistent form, not a deceptive one.

  15 The inverse of the common qualities are such faults as birth from a bad family and so forth, ugliness and so forth, stupidity and so forth.* And if he has these, a lover is not a lover.

  16 A man wasting away is suffering from tuberculosis (‘the royal sickness’). Worms in the faeces is a condition generally called ‘faeces-flies’, in which worms appear in the opening from which faeces are excreted; when semen infected with the disease through contact with the faeces enters a woman, she gets a fever. Crow’s-mouth is a foul-smelling mouth; or else it means that, just as a crow puts things both pure and impure into his mouth, so this man desires women without reflecting about it, and becomes ineligible for sex. A man who loves his wife does not give the courtesan money because he never becomes attached to anyone else. A man who can be bought even by people he hates is so greedy that he surely will not give her money.

  17 These are the reasons: passion, which sometimes arises naturally, by itself; fear of death, like the fear that afflicted Rambha because of Ravana, who said to her, ‘If you do not satisfy my desire, I will kill you’; gain, getting land and so forth; rivalry, like that between the two women, Devadatta and Anangasena, who fought over Muladeva; curiosity, which arises when one hears that a man is debauched and wonders, ‘Is he, really?’; exhaustion, for sex revivifies; religion, which is served by sex with a learned Brahmin who has nothing; compassion, taking pity on someone who says, ‘I will die if you will not make love with me’; the words of a friend, who says, ‘Someone to whom I owe a favour has arrived; do, please, sleep with him tonight’; diffidence toward someone who has the status of an elder; allaying passion, for an excessive volume of semen* is dispelled by sex with any man.

  18 The author here is saying: This is a matter either of practical calculation or of abstract theory. Healing, friendship, dispelling sorrow, and cultivating the arts are matters of practical calculation; while gain, warding off losses, and love are theoretical, for everything can be subsumed under them. The category of gain includes rivalry, curiosity, partiality, exhaustion, religion, fame, the words of a friend, and allaying passion. The category of warding off losses includes fear, hostility, and compassion. All the rest [passion, diffidence, resemblance to someone loved, a shared caste, living in a house together, continuity, and the future] are subsumed under love.

  21 And so there is a common saying:

  He scorns the woman easy to get,

  and desires the woman hard to get.

  But when he has propositioned her over and over, she may accept him.

  25 The art might be singing.

  28 The conversation could be about poetry or about art. Giving him liquor, betel, and so forth are courtesies.

  33 The pander and the others drop hints by saying, ‘Why don’t you sleep here?’ These courtesies make direct suggestions about nothing but sex.

  1 As it was said earlier [at 4.1.48], ‘An only wife … even a courtesan’. But if she is not the only one, then V tells her how to give the man she loves what he wants, for when he is making love with her, she loves him.

  3
She implies that she must do what her mother says.

  6 She tries to take her daughter away to another lover.

  7 She exhibits these feelings toward the man she goes to.

  9 It is unique because it is artificial, a disease such as headache or stomach ache.

  10 When she wants to make love with another lover, she uses her disease as her excuse.

  11 The woman, who is not her mother, collects these things as if the courtesan wanted to say, ‘Even with this I will find a kind of happiness.’

  13 When she becomes aware of the sixty-four erotic techniques of Babhravya of Panchala, she says, ‘Teach me how to do it!’

  14 She uses them afterwards again and again on this very lover, so that he understands, ‘She has made such an effort just for my pleasure!’

  16 When they are alone, she says, ‘My desires were to make love and laugh with you all night long.’

  17 She does not let him see or touch anything flawed in her armpits, thighs, or sexual organ, for fear that it might dampen his ardour.

  18 To proclaim her affection, she sleeps facing him.

  21 She also watches him when he is on the main street, even when she is on the rooftop porch of her house. When he sees her, she thinks, ‘My lover is looking’, and she becomes shy, and that is what destroys her cunning. If she did not show her shyness, he would imagine that she was cunning, for he would think, ‘Her affection is artificial, since she looks right at me all the time.’

  22 She sends spies to find out if he loves other women.

  24 She does not say, ‘I feel very passionate; make love with me!’

  25 She does this so that he knows she is tormented by desire.

  26 She feigns intoxication, feigns sleep, and pretends she has become ill as a result of his failure to make love with her; she says, ‘I have become ill from lack of sex.’

  27 If he has done something to get religious merit, such as building a temple for the gods or a pool, she says, ‘Well done!’