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 marrying many wives should act fairly towards them all. He should
neither disregard nor pass over their faults, and should not reveal to
one wife the love, passion, bodily blemishes, and confidential
reproaches of the other. No opportunity should be given to any one of
them of speaking to him about their rivals, and if one of them should
begin to speak ill of another, he should chide her and tell her that she
has exactly the same blemishes in her character. One of them he should
please by secret confidence, another by secret respect, and another by
secret flattery, and he should please them all by going to gardens, by
amusements, by presents, by honouring their relations, by telling them
secrets, and lastly by loving unions. A young woman who is of a good
temper, and who conducts herself according to the precepts of the Holy
Writ, wins her husband's attachment, and obtains a superiority over her
rivals.
Thus ends the conduct of a husband towards many wives.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 54: A name given to the maid servants of the zenana of the
Kings in ancient times, on account of their always keeping their breasts
covered with a cloth called Kanchuki. It was customary in the olden time
for the maid servants to cover their breasts with a cloth, while the
Queens kept their breasts uncovered. This custom is distinctly to be
seen in the Ajunta cave paintings.]
[Footnote 55: The meaning of this word is a superior woman, so it would
seem that a Mahallarika must be a person in authority over the maid
servants of the house.]
[Footnote 56: This was also appertaining to the rank of women employed
in the harem. In latter times this place was given to eunuchs.]
[Footnote 57: As Kings generally had many wives, it was usual for them
to enjoy their wives by turns. But as it happened sometimes that some of
them lost their turns owing to the King's absence, or to their being
unwell, then in such cases the women whose turns had been passed over,
and those whose turns had come, used to have a sort of lottery, and the
ointment of all the claimants were sent to the King, who accepted the
ointment of one of them, and thus settled the question.]
=END OF PART IV.=
PART V.
ABOUT THE WIVES OF OTHER MEN.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MEN AND WOMEN.--THE REASONS WHY WOMEN REJECT
THE ADDRESSES OF MEN.--ABOUT MEN WHO HAVE SUCCESS WITH WOMEN, AND ABOUT
WOMEN WHO ARE EASILY GAINED OVER.
The wives of other people may be resorted to on the occasions already
described in Part I., Chapter 5, of this work, but the possibility of
their acquisition, their fitness for cohabitation, the danger to oneself
in uniting with them, and the future effect of these unions, should
first of all be examined. A man may resort to the wife of another, for
the purpose of saving his own life, when he perceives that his love for
her proceeds from one degree of intensity to another. These degrees are
ten in number, and are distinguished by the following marks:
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