Transcription

This is the Kama Sutra Its widely known as the Indian Book of Acrobatic Sex Positions when both the legs of the women are contracted and placed on her stomach It is called the Crabs position and since its original composition around years ago its been translated pirated and illustrated Its inspired chocolates branded condoms films and yes even furniture designed for Kama Sutra moves But the part about sex positions is on Lee a fraction of the book It doesnt even have any pictures and the rest a girl who is called by the name of a tree or of a river is considered worthless as also a girl whose name ends in our or l Turns out the compass e threat is very misunderstood It is telling that critics that this country has produced and we have produced God knows how many houses got missile is the one text that has been heard off across the world The Kama Sutra which roughly translates to a treatise on desire was originally compiled in ancient Indian language son script by philosopher Vatsyayana Sometime around the third century it found popularity in the West Centuries later British explorer Richard Francis Burton anew Orientalist famous for his travels east in the hundreds and for translating the Arabian Nights into English commissioned the first English edition of the Kama Sutra Burtons goal was to introduce it to a sexually repressed Victorian society at the time And in order to avoid Britains obscenity laws he created a club to privately publish erotica from the east that would otherwise be illegal to print including the Kama Sutra It wasnt until nearly years later during the era of the sexual revolution that the US legally allowed the publication of the book And once it hit the Internet in the nineties often on Lee this sexy chapters were copied and circulated which created the image of the Kama Sutra room Most people know today even when youre looking to the sticks perhaps an Oriental version in exotic version off six thats indicated provided we dont understanding the larger cultural context So if the book isnt a sex manual what is it Its more of a manual for living a life of leisure and luxury in India During this time period the parts about sexual activity make up one section out of seven Outside of the chapters like kissing biting and different ways of lying down the book details how a man should set up his home not far from the couch and on the ground There should be around seat a toy cart and a board for playing with dice outside the outer room There should be cages of birds It also covers Thesixty four Arts Every public woman of high quality should master including tattooing playing on musical glasses filled with water cooking the art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak and knowledge of the art of war And it explains how a man can acquire a wife how best to commit adultery and also some magic recipes If a man throws this mixture on a woman she will not love anybody else afterwards At times the book shifts to speak directly to women Theres a section on how one wife can maintain control in a household with multiple lives and another section on how to be a profitable court izen or sex worker It also gives a woman ideas about ways to manage men and in that sense its about power As much as it is about pleasure how to get what you want how to make a man do what you want Historian Wendy Doniger argues that for its time the book makes some pretty progressive statements about the role of women and their access to pleasure but explicitly mentions that one of the reasons for the Commerce Centre is because the purpose of sex is not to have children but to have fun Thats a revolutionary thing to say But at the same time the book is loaded with contradictions Its less about the practice of sexuality and more about the control of sexuality For example it features a list of classes of women who are not to be enjoyed and rape is listed as an acceptable last resort form of acquiring a wife give the girl some intoxicating substance and enjoy her before she recovers years later its not surprising that the text doesnt hold up Its a book of its time a historical account of what elite life and pleasure may have looked like in ancient India I dont think honey and detects any of them candy Its into these categories of feminists for patriarchal as easily as me perhaps making zone today The task that it undertakes in a sense is a very fundamental one for all human society which is held Do you recon so basic instincts on the desire for pleasure for social pleasure with social order on social obligations too Over the years the Kama Sutra has made its way from Indian philosophers to Victorian explorers to todays magazine columnists and its taken on a life of its own The sexy bits have endured while the more complex parts about gender and power and class have been lost in translation