The Book Kama Sutra Reveals 21 Sexual Insights

What do you know about the Book, Kama Sutra?

While there is widespread recognition of the term, it is also accompanied with widespread misconceptions.

Here are 21 simple Kama Sutra insights that may surprise you!

1. The full title of the text is “vatsyayana kama sutra” (translated as “Aphorisms on Love, by Vatsyayana”).

   Vatsyayana, complied the works of other authors who where considered experts in their respective fields.

2. The Kama Sutra Kama Book was first translated into English by the 19th Century British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821 – 1890) in 1876.

   According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages and countless dialects – Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindustani, as well as Persian and Arabic [1].

   Interestingly, as a scholar – and an inventor of words. he introduced the words pajamas and safari to the English language.

3. He brought other well known erotica literature of the East in an UNCENSORED form:

   – The Perfumed Garden
   – The Ananga Ranga

   to the dignity and propriety of the Victorian world, shocking and outraging them. Burton received some measure of acclaim in his later years

   It is quoted that, following a visit to a prostitute, Burton, who had three Indian mistresses said:

   “We British never knew of this kind of love-making. Had we known, we would not have ruined the lives of so many British virgins.” [2]

4. In 1883 Burton risked prosecution and imprisonment under the Obscene Publications Act after publishing 250 copies of the Book, Kama Sutra,, privately in Britain. The book did not become legal until it sold in Britain until 1963.
5. Teh Book, Kama Sutra, was written in the ancient Sanskrit language. In Sanskrit, Kama means desire and Sutra means rules. In the context of the book “desire” includes singing, reading, poetry and dancing as well as sex.
6. The Book, Kama Sutra,k contains a total of 64 sexual positions. Vatsyayana believed there were eight ways of making love, multiplied by eight positions within each of these. In the book, they are known as the 64 Arts.
7. Only about 20 per cent of the book is devoted to sexual positions. The remainder gives guidance on how to be a good citizen and insights into men and women in relationships. In his closing remarks Sir Burton concludes:

   “Thus ends, in seven parts, the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, which might otherwise be called a treatise on men and women, their mutual relationship and connection with each other” [3]

8. The Kama Sutra describes making love as “divine union”. Vatsyayana believed that sex itself was not wrong, but doing it badly was sinful.
9. Lovers who suffer from medical complaints such as back pain and arthritis are warned not to attempt some of the Kama Sutra’s positions. Vatsyayana states: “They predispose for rheumatic pains and sciatica.”
10. After Burton published the Kama Sutra the prudish British Raj banned the book in India. At the same time they also stopped temple prostitutes and child marriages.
11. The Kama Sutra Book may have originated in India, but in 1996 the authorities there clamped down on the film “Kama Sutra – A Tale of Love” and demanded that 14 explicit scenes were cut before it was fit to be shown to Indian audiences.
12. Code breakers also find the Kama Sutra fascinating as it contains instructions for making messages unreadable – one of the earliest books to do this. The Kama Sutra included encryption as an art a woman should study, presumably to help her make secret meetings with her lovers.
13. Kama is the Hindu god of love. The word also refers to the pursuit of love or pleasure, one of the four aims of life in Hindu traditions. Kama is always depicted as a handsome youth, shooting arrows of love that produce love. His wife is Rati.
14. According to the book, Kama Sutra, a man becomes irresistible to women if he ties the bone of a peacock or hyena which has been covered in gold to his right hand.
15. It recommends both biting and scratching as ways of improving lovemaking, but insists on high standards of cleanliness. It states:

    “The qualities of good nails are that they should be bright, well set, clean, entire, convex, soft, and glossy in appearance. The defects of teeth on the other hand are that they are blunt, protruding from the gums, rough, soft, large, or loosely set.”

16. The Book, Kama Sutra, also gives tips on the best ways to arrange a house. It suggests that people will be happiest if they have a pot for spitting in, a lute hanging from an elephant’s tooth, a soft bed and pots of flowers
17. A chapter is devoted to methods of seducing and getting away with sleeping with other men’s wives. But at the end Vatsyayana does admit that men shouldn’t make love to married women.
18. The book contains an early recipe for Viagra. It suggests that sparrows’ eggs boiled in milk and then mixed with clarified butter and honey will do wonders for a man’s love life
19. There are 10 methods of kissing in the Book, Kama Sutra,(including) – the nominal kiss, the probing kiss, the touching kiss, the straight kiss, the bent kiss, the turned kiss, the pressed kiss and the greatly pressed kiss – and four ways to administer the kiss. That gives a total of 40 different ways to kiss a lover.
20. The ever lasting political taboo of the Book, Kama Sutra, was captured in this comment by South Asian religions scholar, Dr. Lee Siegel:

    “Clinton was in India last year(1999), an Indian diplomat gave him a book; the President looked at the cover and, seeing that it was the Kama Sutra, immediately and wisely handed the dangerous symbol back. ” 

21. And finally… A racehorse owner named his horse Kama Sutra. The two-year-old colt was sired by Pursuit Of Love and out of Note Book.

    No doubt his owner and trainer celebrate when Kama Sutra comes first.