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Kamasutra (Paperback)
Mallanaga Vatsyayana; Translated by Wendy Doniger, Sudhir Kakar
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R263
Discovery Miles 2 630
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The Kamasutra is the oldest extant textbook of erotic love. But it
is more than a book about sex. It is about the art of living--about
finding a partner, maintaining power in a marriage, committing
adultery, living as or with a courtesan, using drugs--and also, of
course, about the many and varied positions available to lovers in
sexual intercourse and the pleasures to be derived from each.
The Kamasutra was composed in Sanskrit, the literary language of
ancient India, sometime in the third century, probably in North
India. It combines an encyclopedic coverage of all imaginable
aspects of sex with a closely observed sexual psychology and a
dramatic, novelistic narrative of seduction, consummation, and
disentanglement. Best known in English through the highly mannered,
padded, and inaccurate nineteenth-century translation by Sir
Richard Burton, the text is newly translated here into clear,
vivid, sexually frank English. This edition also includes a section
of vivid Indian color illustrations along with three uniquely
important commentaries: translated excerpts from the earliest and
most famous Sanskrit commentary (thirteenth century) and from a
twentieth-century Hindi commentary, and explanatory notes by the
two translators.
The lively and entertaining introduction by translator Wendy
Doniger, one of the world's foremost Sanskrit scholars, discusses
the history of The Kamasutra and its reception in India and Europe,
analyses its attitudes toward gender and sexual violence, and sets
it in the context of ancient Indian social theory, scientific
method, and sexual ethics.
" This] new translation is fascinating, thought-provoking and
occasionally even amusing."--Salon.com
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of
other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more.
The oldest known book to focus on erotic love, Vatsyayana's Kama
Sutra is more than a book about sex; it is about living, morals,
and guiding principles. A great read, it is no surprise that it has
survived the test of time.
Kama signifies sensual or sexual pleasure, and sutra literally
means a thread or rule that holds things together, or a collection
of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. The book of Kama Sutra
is not just an exclusive sex manual however, it features a complete
guide to a virtuous and gracious living that discusses the nature
of love, family life and other aspects pertaining to pleasure
oriented faculties of human life.
This definitive volume is the first modern translation of
Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra to include two essential commentaries: the
Jayamangala of Yashodhara and the modern Hindi commentary by
Devadatta Shastri. Alain Danilou spent four years comparing
versions of the Kama Sutra in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and
English, drawing on his intimate experience of India, to preserve
the full explicitness of the original. I wanted to demystify India,
he writes, to show that a period of great civilization, of high
culture, is forcibly a period of great liberty.
The 1964 publication of Sir Richard Burton's translation marked the first wide appearance in English of the Kama Sutra and was celebrated as a literary event of highest importance. As vital to an understanding of ancient Indian civilization as the works of Plato and Aristotle are to the West, the Kama Sutra has endured for 1,700 years as an indisputable classic of world literature. Written with frankness and unassuming candor, the Kama Sutra remains one of the most readable and enjoyable of all the classics of antiquity. A work of philosophy, psychology, sociology, Hindu dogma, scientific inquiry, and sexology, the Kama Sutra's importance is so great that it has at the same time both affected Indian civilization and remained an indispensable key to understanding it.
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