The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana | Page 3

But here it is treated in a plain, simple, matter of fact sort of
way. Men and women are divided into classes and divisions in the
same way that Buffon and other writers on natural history have
classified and divided the animal world. As Venus was represented by
the Greeks to stand forth as the type of the beauty of woman, so the
Hindoos describe the Padmini or Lotus woman as the type of most
perfect feminine excellence, as follows:
She in whom the following signs and symptoms appear is called a
Padmini. 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. 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; she has a good neck; her
nose is straight and lovely, and three folds or wrinkles cross her middle
- about the umbilical region. Her yoni resembles the opening lotus bud,
and her love seed (Kama salila) is perfumed like the lily that has newly
burst. She walks with swan-like gait, and her voice is low and musical
as the note of the Kokila bird, she delights in white raiments, in fine
jewels, and in rich dresses. She eats little, sleeps lightly, and being as
respectful 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.
Detailed descriptions then follow of the Chitrini or Art woman; the
Shankhini or Conch woman, and the Hastini or Elephant woman, their

days of enjoyment, their various seats of passion, the manner in which
they should be manipulated and treated in sexual intercourse, along
with the characteristics of the men and women of the various countries
in Hindostan. The details are so numerous, and the subjects so seriously
dealt with, and at such length, that neither time nor space will permit of
their being given here.
One work in the English language is somewhat similar to these works
of the Hindoos. It is called 'Kalogynomia: or the Laws of Female
Beauty', being the elementary principles of that science, by T. Bell,
M.D., with twenty-four plates, and printed in London in 1821. It treats
of Beauty, of Love, of Sexual Intercourse, of the Laws regulating that
Intercourse, of Monogamy and Polygamy, of Prostitution, of Infidelity,
ending with a catalogue raisonnée of the defects of female beauty.
Other works in English also enter into great details of private and
domestic life: The Elements of Social Science, or Physical, Sexual and
Natural Religion, by a Doctor of Medicine, London, 1880, and Every
Woman's Book, by Dr Waters, 1826. To persons interested in the above
subjects these works will be found to contain such details as have been
seldom before published, and which ought to be thoroughly understood
by all philanthropists and benefactors of society.
After a perusal of the Hindoo work, and of the English books above
mentioned, the reader will understand the subject, at all events from a
materialistic, realistic and practical point of view. If all science is
founded more or less on a stratum of facts, there can be no harm in
making known to mankind generally certain matters intimately
connected with their private, domestic, and social life.
Alas! complete ignorance of them has unfortunately wrecked many a
man and many a woman, while a little knowledge of a subject generally
ignored by the masses would have enabled numbers of people to have
understood many things which they believed to be quite
incomprehensible, or which were not thought worthy of their
consideration.

INTRODUCTION
IT may be interesting to some persons to learn how it came about that
Vatsyayana was first brought to light and translated into the English
language. It happened thus. While translating with the pundits the
'Anunga Runga, or the stage of love', reference was frequently found to
be made to one Vatsya. The sage Vatsya was of this opinion, or of that
opinion. The sage Vatsya said this, and so on. Naturally questions were
asked who the sage was, and the pundits replied that Vatsya was the
author of the standard work on love in Sanscrit literature, that no
Sanscrit library was complete without his work, and that it was most
difficult now to obtain in its entire state. The copy of the manuscript
obtained in Bombay was defective, and so the pundits wrote to Benares,
Calcutta and Jeypoor for copies of the manuscript from Sanscrit
libraries in those places. Copies having been obtained, they were then
compared with each other, and with the aid of a Commentary