Kamasutra

by Vatsyayana Mallanaga

  28 She says, ‘How well that was said! Who else knows how to speak like that?’ Responding to the speech of a man in whom affection has not yet arisen would be, on the other hand, an embarrassment.

  29 In order to express her jealousy and anger, she does not respond to a story about another wife.

  32 When she is depressed because she has heard something unpleasant about the man and he asks her the cause of her depression, she says, ‘I have had this illness for a long time; it is an old enemy that afflicts me.’

  33 Or else he will think, ‘She is attached to another man.’

  36 As long as he thinks, ‘She has been unfaithful’, for that entire period, in order to prove him wrong, she demonstrates the torment of her body by acting exhausted, anointing her limbs with oil, fasting, and so forth. A misfortune might be the death of the man’s son or brother and so forth, or his falling ill or getting a fever.

  37 She laments, saying, ‘How can this have happened to you when you have done nothing wrong?’ In this way she shows him, ‘I too am miserable because of this misery.’

  38 She says, ‘My mother is truly perverse. Take me away from her and bring me to another country, where I can live independently.’ And if she is bound to the king, she gets him to like this idea: ‘Ransom me from the hands of the king, or else he will have me brought back when I have run away.’

  39 ‘Otherwise I will die at any moment’, she says.

  40 He gets back his physical strength after an illness. She says, ‘Formerly, I asked the Goddess to fulfil my hopes for getting money and so forth, and that is why these wishes have been fulfilled; now I must make the offering to her.’

  43 When he goes to a friend’s house, or to see a deity, then she thinks, ‘I cannot be separated from him for even a moment’, and she herself follows him.

  44 She says, ‘I am in my fertile period, and so you should not sleep anywhere else!’ and ‘If my death comes before his, it would be a blessing.’

  46 She takes the same vow.

  47 If there is a quarrel with someone about a fine point of meaning in some matter, she says, ‘If anyone can do it, he is the one.’

  50 She says, ‘Give me your leftover garlands and so forth. And when you are invited somewhere and do not take me with you, always send me what you do not eat.’

  56 When he says, ‘You are always using love-sorcery to put me in your power, so that I will be totally submissive to you’, she replies, ‘No! I would never do anything like that!’

  58 Her mother forces her to go to another lover.

  59 She convinces him that it is all her mother’s fault alone, not hers. Her position is that the lives of courtesans are despicable, because their mothers, thirsting for money, make them abandon a man they are fond of and join them with some other man.

  61 In the end, when her mother tells her even what to eat, she does not disobey.

  64 She envies them, thinking, ‘They are being rewarded for their merit, for my lover sees them; I must have no merit, for he does not see me.’

  65 If she sees an auspicious dream that is true, she tells her people about it in the morning. If she has a false dream, she tells them she did not have a dream. If her lover is in another region and has some wish that is not fulfilled, she knows of this by these various dreams.

  66 If she thinks, ‘Something unwished-for has happened to him’, she summons the Brahmins.

  70 She says, ‘I am fulfilling the promise I made when I said, “If my beloved comes back to me, I will give you a ball of rice.”’

  72 She says, ‘When you have gone to heaven, it will not be possible for me to live.’

  3 She will get double what would come to her through natural means and discussion, and without deductions.

  4 He gives her the money but she does not actually get the things.

  7 She says this so that he thinks, ‘She was robbed coming to my side’, and gives her other jewellery.

  8 She reports to him, ‘Through carelessness, a fire broke out and burnt up my property.’ She herself must not set a fire, however, because then through her fault many lives might be lost. Or thieves, or people who pretend to be thieves, dig an opening in a wall to rob the house. She says, ‘Through my carelessness, or my mother’s, things were lost in the house.’

  9 Someone else had hidden jewellery there, for some reason, and now has asked to have it back; and the man had left his own jewellery there. But now that he learns that it has been destroyed by fire, of course he gives her money, and does not ask for his own jewellery. In front of the man, spies brought in by servants sent by the man say, ‘To come to you, she spent these funds on rum, betel, and so forth.’

  12 She says, ‘These friends brought valuable presents to me at my festival.’ She had mentioned them to him before the friends’ party had taken place. For when she asks for them in advance he gives them at the time of the affair, and if he does not give them, she certainly does not go to him then.

  13 She abruptly ceases her daily care of her body, so that he thinks, ‘Now she is not even able to care for her body’, and gives her money.

  14 She says, ‘This excellent artisan demands a lot to do the work, and I do not have it, but if you give it, the work will be done; if not, I will have it done when I have the money.’

  16 These favours were done for the man, and those for whom the favours have been done will do favours for the man if disasters—of human origin or acts of gods—befall him.

  17 The pregnant woman is her girlfriend. The courtesan says to the man, ‘Because of the death of a son (or whatever) of a friend of yours, I am so unhappy. Seeing this, you should cheer me up.’ With this sort of pretext she manages the home improvements and so forth.

  19 In the presence of the lover, the woman shows the jewellery and so forth to a merchant with whom she has a prior understanding, so that the man thinks, ‘She must have nothing left at all, if she is trying to sell the things she uses all the time’, and so he gives her money.

  20 Here V cites the teaching of Dattaka—’When there is a pooling of similar household goods, she takes the special ones’—and adds a phrase to clarify it: ‘with rival courtesans de luxe.’ Because the goods are similar, they accidentally get exchanged, and so that this should not happen again, in the presence of her lover she takes from the hand of the merchant, from time to time, some goods that are superior in both size and quality, so that the lover will give her money to pay for it. Generally, courtesans of the same class borrow one another’s household goods as the need arises.

  21 She praises them in his presence, so that he says, ‘The kindness that I did has not come to naught here’, and he gives her money again.

  23 She does this so that he too becomes ashamed, and gives her money.

  24 She does this so that he hears about this, says, ‘She loves me’, and gives her money.

  26 Thinking, ‘He will not come back to this house’, she gets a child to request, ‘Give this to me’. Or else it means that she abandons her shame, like a child, and begs him.

  29 He makes friends with those in the faction opposed to the woman.

  31 He does not give her what he has been giving her every day.

  33 He does not communicate with them with words, for he thinks, ‘She must not hear this.’

  34 He sleeps somewhere other than inside the woman’s house.

  36 She does this before he realizes, ‘My passion for her is cooling’.

  37 She had taken the man’s money from this creditor, who had had it as a debt; and by a previous agreement, the creditor took it back by overpowering her by force.

  38 If the man argues, ‘But this is mine; why are you taking it?’ the creditor sues him in court. And if he does not argue, the goal is achieved.

  39 She deceives him, because he is still attached to her. But even if he has previously done her many favours, she gets rid of him if he wants another woman.

  40 If someone should remark, ‘How can she just throw him out, when he has g
iven her sexual pleasure and profit?’ V replies, ‘She gets support from another man’, and this man gives her both pleasure and profit.

  42 She crosses her two arms, places her hands on her own shoulders, and puts her two arms together to make a needle. When he tries to make love, with some difficulty, and she sees that he is exhausted, she urges him to go on, but does not help him out by offering to play the part of the man [2.8.1]. There actually is a kind of sexual donkey who makes love in the daytime even though it is forbidden. When she realizes, from his gestures and signals, that he wants to make love, she goes out.

  44 It was Dattaka who set forth the rules for the relationship between the lover and the courtesan, up to this point; I did not invent it. For it was he who decided, through the commission of the courtesans, to make this condensation. But it was Babhravya who set forth in a useful form what I am going to tell now, about getting back together with an ex-lover and so forth.

  15 ‘He was looking for some special kind of sex, which he did not see in that woman, because she lacked sophistication. He wants to come back from her to me, because he has seen that special something in me.’

  27 ‘He is keeping him away from me now, because of his friendship with him.’

  28 ‘When I had broken with him, he went back to his own wife. And I will treat her with contempt because of this, and by getting back together with him I will get him to leave her, and so I will get revenge for this insult.’

  29 ‘The friend of my ex-lover has power and possessions, and he is in love with my present or former co-wife, who wishes to harm me. By means of the ex-lover, I will get that friend to break away, so that she will have no profit and will have to do favours for me.’

  30 ‘He left me to go elsewhere, and he also left her to go elsewhere.’

  34 They mention what he did for her, by giving money or warding off losses, to show that she is grateful.

  38 ‘Breaking another woman away from the lover’ refers to the situations in which ‘his wife has treated me with contempt’ [28] or ‘his friend is in love with my co-wife, who hates me.’ [29]. ‘Hurting the lover who stays with another woman’ refers to the situation in which ‘he will stop her income’ [25]. ‘Breaking the ex-lover away from another woman’ states a reason for staying with the ex-lover.

  40 The man who is not attached to her is an ex-lover who is still very much in love with her; she welcomes him because his feelings for her are known. The man who is attached to her is not in love with her, and so she treats him with contempt. Another man, who is very clever, gives her a great deal of money, saying, ‘Do not make a connection with another man.’

  41 Although he uses the more general term, ‘a woman’, he is referring only to a courtesan in this section. She does not make love with the man right then, or else there might be a break from her present, attached, profitable lover. And the previously intimate ex-lover is willing to wait for another time, because he loves her so much and has hope.

  42 She enchants just the man who is attached to her because she loves him for having stayed; she does not make any connection with the other man.

  8 The woman chooses on the basis of her own love and the man’s love for her.

  13 Because he is generous, he does not consider the past and say, ‘I already gave money to her, and I will not give it again.’

  16 A false move is an infidelity committed by the woman.

  17 Because they are dignified, they do not disregard a false move. Because they are straightforward, they accept unjust slander, such as, ‘That woman is always making false moves.’ Because they are thoughtless, they have no regard for the pains a woman takes on their behalf.

  18 He does not accept unjust slander.

  26 A heavy gain outweighs a light loss, and a heavy loss outweighs a light gain.

  28 Mediation is given through the hand of another person, since a Brahmin cannot receive a gift from a courtesan.

  29 Those who live on their beauty do not know the arts.

  31 The middle and lowest are the women who live on their beauty and the women who carry water pots.

  12 The gains have been discussed in the passage about the three aims of human life [1.1.2].

  15 Because of his own lack of funds, the man who is attached to a woman gives her money that he took from another man and should give back to him, so that people say, ‘She is living with a robber.’

  20 There are twenty-four combinations of consequences: each of the six—gain, loss, religious merit, violation of religion, pleasure, and hatred—coupled with four of the others.

  26 He hesitates to say, ‘There will be no pleasure’, because he is tormented by passion. But he is not even attractive to her.

  29 He wants to die because he has reached the final stage of desire.

  40 She does not go to the man who is attached to her.

  43 Two-sided results for religious merit occur when [6.6.29] she goes to the Brahmin who is going to die, for religious merit comes both from the fact that she is serving a Brahmin and that he is otherwise going to die of his love for her. Two-sided results for the violation of religion occur when [29] she goes to the man under a vow of chastity, both because he breaks his vow and because he is unwilling. Two-sided doubts about religious merit arise when [38] she goes to another man who has no money, and she worries, ‘Will religious merit be served or not?’ and [22] the man who is attached to her can give her nothing, because she has squeezed all the money out of him, and she worries, ‘Will religious merit come from this or not?’ Two-sided doubts about the violation of religion arise when [29] she goes to another man from a religious order and makes him break his vow, and she wonders, ‘Will religion be violated or not?’ and [29] the man attached to her, who has taken a vow, intends to give her a lot of money, and she wonders, ‘Will religion be violated or not?’

  Two-sided results for pleasure occur when [23] she goes to another attractive man and also [32–4] satisfies her desire with the attractive man who is attached to her. Two-sided results for hatred occur when [26] her passion cools both from going to another unattractive man and from going to the unattractive man attached to her. Two-sided doubts about pleasure arise when [30] she goes to another man, without knowing if he has good qualities or not, and she wonders, ‘Will pleasure result or not?’ and [33] the man attached to her is unrequited and she wonders, ‘Will pleasure result or not?’ Two-sided doubts about hatred arise when [26] she goes to another man and wonders, ‘Will my passion toward this man cool or not, since he hesitates to talk about dispelling passion?’ and [26] ‘Will my passion cool or not toward the man attached to me, to whom I feel the same way?’

  53 Of the two kinds of women, the earlier parts of this text—about virgins, sex, wives, and other men’s wives—are about women who care most of all about passion.

  4 Spread this ointment on your body.

  6 Use the leaves of the blue lotus and the roots of all the others.

  10 Cover it with leaves of pure gold.

  11 Have them gold-plated and hold them in your hand.

  12 As the common saying goes: ‘For what is hard to get becomes precious and sought after.’ And as the poet says:

  ‘There are two kinds of marriages to a courtesan,

  one brought about by the gods and the other by human effort.

  The divine variety is caused by Kama’s bow,

  and the other kind by the lover.’

  14 She wants the men to think, ‘She is so much in love with us that, even though she is well-guarded, she will come to us without letting her mother know.’

  18 If her own daughter has been married through a wedding in the manner of the gods, she gets him to take her virginity through one of the means described above [3.5.15, 25–6]. The distinction made here is between the man who takes her hand in marriage and then takes her virginity [7.1.18] and the man who gives money as described above [7.1.16] and then takes her virginity.

  19 When she has secretly joined her own daughter with an at
tractive man who has taken her virginity, she says, ‘I did not give permission for this.’

  20 They take her virginity by using a finger.

  22 She loses the money she would get from another man who is her present lover.

  23 These women are dancers and so forth.

  24 The musical instrument accompanies dancing, singing, and so forth.

  25 Do this in such a way that the woman you want does not realize, ‘A man with something spread on his penis is making love to me.’

  26 Sprinkle the powder made of these materials on the head of women and on the two feet of men. This ‘peacock’ is not the bird called the peacock but a kind of pheasant.

  29 This is a way to amaze someone when the occasion arises.

  30 Use a monkey with a red face.

  33 Use the flowers of the panic-seed plant.

  34 The shank-bone is a camel’s. You break it into pieces the size of grains of rice, dip it thirty-seven times, and then burn it. Mix it with equal parts of antimony. It affects vision by dispelling darkness and so forth.

  36 Boil the first three ingredients in cow’s-milk. When it cools, add the sugar and drink it.

  37 Boil it.

  40 ‘Endless’ means many.

  43 A young man who eats this will have an enormous capacity for sex.

  49 The Veda meant here is the Atharva Veda. The qualified people are those who are adept at the spells and can be trusted.

  1 If he cannot give her a sexual climax because he has no passion left, he resorts to contrivances.

  2 Even if a man of dull sexual energy begins to make love because his penis is hard, nevertheless from the start he massages her between the legs with his hand in the ‘elephant trunk’ technique [2.8.19]. And he enters a woman of fierce sexual energy only when she has become wet after he has massaged her with his hand, because this inspires passion for as long a time as the woman desires.

  3 A man whose passion has arisen but who does not start to make love, because his penis is not hard, may kindle his passion with oral sex, which gives rise to the delight of ejaculation. For the penis of an old man or a fat man stands up only with difficulty.