The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana: Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding RemarksVatsyayana
Philosophy
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana: Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks
Vatsyayana
Love; Sex
A man, employing the sixty-four means mentioned by Babhravya, obtains
his object, and enjoys the woman of the first quality. Though he may
speak well on other subjects, if he does not know the sixty-four
divisions, no great respect is paid to him in the assembly of the
learned. A man, devoid of other knowledge, but well acquainted with the
sixty-four divisions, becomes a leader in any society of men and women.
What man will not respect the sixty-four parts,[42] considering they are
respected by the learned, by the cunning, and by the courtezans. As the
sixty-four parts are respected, are charming, and add to the talent of
women, they are called by the Acharyas dear to women. A man skilled in
the sixty-four parts is looked upon with love by his own wife, by the
wives of others, and by courtezans.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 40: The fresh juice of the cocoa nut tree, the date tree, and
other kinds of palm trees are drunk in India. It will not keep fresh
very long, but ferments rapidly, and is then distilled into liquor.]
[Footnote 41: The characteristics of these three individuals have been
given in Part I. page 31.]
[Footnote 42: A definition of the sixty-four parts, or divisions, is
given in Chapter II., page 45.]
=END OF PART II.=
PART III.
ABOUT THE ACQUISITION OF A WIFE.
CHAPTER I.
ON MARRIAGE.
When a girl of the same caste, and a virgin, is married in accordance
with the precepts of Holy Writ, the results of such an union are: the
acquisition of Dharma and Artha, offspring, affinity, increase of
friends, and untarnished love. For this reason a man should fix his
affections upon a girl who is of good family, whose parents are alive,
and who is three years or more younger than himself. She should be born
of a highly respectable family, possessed of wealth, well connected, and
with many relations and friends. She should also be beautiful, of a good
disposition, with lucky marks on her body, and with good hair, nails,
teeth, ears, eyes, and breasts, neither more nor less than they ought to
be, and no one of them entirely wanting, and not troubled with a sickly
body. The man should, of course, also possess these qualities himself.
But at all events, says Ghotakamukha, a girl who has been already joined
with others (_i.e._, no longer a maiden) should never be loved, for it
would be reproachable to do such a thing.
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