"Kama Sutra - Wow! These Hot Ancient Hindoo's Really Knew How To Make Love..."

Modern translated version of the original Sanskrit.

Kamasutram, generally known to the Western world as Kama Sutra, is an ancient Indian text on human sexual behavior, widely considered to be the standard work on love in Sanskrit literature.

The text was composed by Vatsyayana, as a brief summary of various earlier works belonging to a tradition known generically as Kama Shastra. Kama is literally desire.

Sutra signifies a thread, or discourse threaded on a series of aphorisms.

Sutra was a standard term for a technical text, thus also the Yogasutram of Patanjali.

The text is originally known as Vatsyayana Kamasutram ("Vatsyayana's Aphorisms on Love"). Tradition holds that the author was a celibate scholar living in Paliputra, an important center of learning in modern day Tamilnadu. Most scholarly estimates place him in the 4th century. If this date is correct, Vatsayana lived during the heart of the Gupta period, an era known for its massive contributions to classical Sanskrit literature and Vedic culture.

History of Kama Sutra
Kamashastra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Indian literature, Kamashastra refers to the tradition of works on erotics.

It therefore has a practical orientation, similar to that of Arthashastra, the tradition of texts on politics, government etc. Just as the former instructs kings and ministers about government, Kamashastra aims at instructing the townsman (nāgarika) the way to attain sexual pleasure and fulfillment.

The earliest text of the Kama Shastra tradition, said to have contained a vast amount of information, is attributed to Nandi the sacred bull, Shiva's doorkeeper, who was moved to sacred utterance by overhearing the lovemaking of the god Shiva and his wife Parvati.

During the 8th century BC, Shvetaketu, son of Uddalaka, produced a summary of Nandi's work, but this "summary" was still too vast to be accessible. A scholar called Babhravya, together with a group of his disciples, produced a summary of Shvetaketu's summary which remained a huge and encyclopaedic tome.

Between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, several authors reproduced different parts of the Babhravya group's work in various specialist treatises. Among the authors, those whose names are known are Charayana, Ghotakamukha, Gonardiya, Gonikaputra, Suvarnanabha, and Dattaka.

However, the oldest available text on this subject is the Kama Sutra ascribed to Vatsyayana who is often erroneously called as "Mallanaga Vatsyayana". Yashodhara, in his commentary of Kama Sutra, attributes the origin of erotic science to Mallanaga, the "prophet of the Asuras", meaning it originated in prehistoric times.

The attribution of the name "Mallanaga" to Vatsyayana is due to the confusion of his role as editor of the Kama Sutra with that of the mythical creator of erotic science.

Vatsyayana's birth date is not accurately known but he must have lived earlier than the 7th century since he is referred to by Subandhu in his poem Vāsavadattā.

On the other hand Vātsyāyana must have been familiar with the Arthashastra of Kautilya. On the other hand Vātsyāyana refers to and quotes a number of texts on this subject, which unfortunately have been lost.

Following Vātsyāyana, a number of authors wrote on Kāmashastra, some writing independent manuals of erotics, while others commenting on Vātsyāyana. Of later works well known are Kokkaka's Ratirahasya (13th century) and Anangaranga of Kalyanamalla (16th century). Of commentators on Vatsyayana the most well known is Jayamangala (13th century).

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