Ananga Ranga : Kama Sutra

The Ananga Ranga
by Kalyana Malla

Written around 1172 AD the Ananga Ranga was specifically aimed at preventing the separation of husband an wife. The Author Kalyana Malla says "The chief reason for the separation between the married couple and the cause which drives the husband to the embraces of strange women, and the wife to the embraces of strange men, is the want of varied pleasures, and the monotony which follows possession."

Excerpt:

And now learn ye by these words to distinguish from one another the four orders of woman-kind. She in whom the following signs and symptoms appear, is called Padmini, or Lotus-woman. Her face is pleasing as the full moon; her body, well clothed with flesh., is soft as the Shiras or mustard-flower; her skin is fine, tender and fair as the yellow lotus, never dark-coloured, though resembling, in the effervescence and purple light of her youth, the cloud about to burst.

Her eyes are bright and beautiful as the orbs of the fawn, well-cut, and with reddish corners. Her bosom is hard, full and high; her neck is goodly shaped as the conch-shell, so delicate that the saliva can be seen through it; her nose is straight and lovely, and three folds of wrinkles cross her middle, about the umbilical region. Her Yoni resembles the open lotus-bud, and her Love-seed (Kama-salila, the water of life) is perfumed like the lily which has newly burst.

She walks with swanlike gait, and her voice is low and musical as the note of the Kokila-bird; she delights in white raiment, in fine jewels, and in rich dresses. She cats little, sleeps lightly and, being as respectable and religious as she is clever and courteous she is ever anxious to worship the gods, and to enjoy the conversation of Brahmans. Such, then, is the Padmini, or Lotus-woman.

End Excerpt

The Kama Sutra
by Vatsyayana Mallanaga

The Kama Sutra, which means "Sex Science", is the earliest surviving example of a written Hindu love-manual. It was compiled by the Indian sage Vatsyayana sometime between the second and fourth centuries A.D. His work was based on earlier Kama Shastras or "Rules of Love" going back to at least the seventh century B.C., and is a compendium of the social norms and love-customs of patriarchal Northern India around the time he lived.

Excerpt:

IN the beginning, the Lord of Beings created men and women, and in the form of commandments in one hundred thousand chapters laid down rules for regulating their existence with regard to Dharma, 1 Artha, 2 and Kama. 3 Some of these commandments, namely those which treated of Dharma, were separately written by Swayambhu Manu; those that related to Artha were compiled by Brihaspati; and those that referred to Kama were expounded by Nandi, the follower of Mahadeva, in one thousand chapters.

Now these 'Kama Sutra' (Aphorisms on Love), written by Nandi in one thousand chapters, were reproduced by Shvetaketu, the son of Uddvalaka, in an abbreviated form in five hundred chapters, and this work was again similarly reproduced in an abridged form, in one hundred and fifty chapters, by Babhravya, an inheritant of the Punchala (South of Delhi) country. These one hundred and fifty chapters were then put together under seven heads or parts named severally

1. Sadharana (general topics)
2. Samprayogika (embraces, etc.)
3. Kanya Samprayuktaka (union of males and females)
4. Bharyadhikarika (on one's own wife)
5. Paradika (on the wives of other people)
6. Vaisika (on courtesans)
7. Aupamishadika (on the arts of seduction, tonic medicines, etc.)

End Excerpt