Show notes | PDF & Infographic | The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian treatise dedicated to sensual and emotional life, lust, and love.

Learn on your terms. Get the PDF, infographic, full ad-free audiobook and animated version of this summary of Kamasutra and a lot more on the top-rated StoryShots app: https://www.getstoryshots.com

Listen to the full audiobook here.

Help us grow to create more amazing content for you! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review the StoryShots podcast now. 

What should our next book be? Suggest and vote it up on the StoryShots app.

About Vatsyayana

Vatsyayana Mallanaga was an ancient Indian philosopher and scholar who lived around the third century AD. Once he had a conversation about sexual desires and lust with his student. That dialog prompted him to write the Kama Sutra as a guide to the topics of love and carnal pleasures for those who were as ignorant as his disciple. As a naishtika-brahmachari, Vatsyayana renounced worldly goods and relationships with women. He rejected the sexual aspect of existence at the level of action, speech, and mind. It was customary for the Vedic scriptures to offer rules, advice, or guidelines based on knowledge of the laws of the universe, rather than on personal experience. Being a Sage and a man who achieved self-knowledge, Vatsyayana developed a deep understanding of all the aspects of human life, even without taking part in some of them.

Introduction

The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian treatise dedicated to sensual and emotional life, lust, and love. In its seven books, it explains the principles of Dharma, Artha, and Kama. Dharma refers to one’s duties and how to fulfill them. Artha represents the acquisition of wealth. Kama describes the five senses and the way they help us know and experience the world. The Kama Sutra’s goal is to walk the reader through the adventure of learning bodily pleasures and finding love. 

In Sanskrit, sutra literally means “thread” but also refers to a “text.” Kama means “desire, pleasure, love, or sex” and is the name of the god of erotic love.

StoryShot #1: Whom You Can and Cannot Share Carnal Pleasures with

As you probably know, India has a caste (class) system. According to Vatsayayana, a man can cause conception of children in a ‘lawful’ manner only if he is married to a woman from his class. Women from higher castes and those shared by others are taboo. Along with that, the author specified eight reasons to have sex with a previously married woman. Finally, there are certain categories of females that can’t be deemed as suitable partners for sharing a bed. They include mentally challenged, gossiping, outcast, ugly or unclean ladies who lost their "glow," relatives, female friends, as well as women who have masculine features.

StoryShot #2: Division of Men and Women into Classes

This division has nothing to do with social classes. Instead, it uses the sizes of genitalia as a fundamental criterion. Men are divided into three categories: hare, bull, or horse. In a similar vein, there are deer, mare, or elephant women. To make sure a union is equal and fruitful, the size of men’s genitalia should match those of a woman.

The author also classified partners in sexual pleasures according to their stamina. Every individual belongs to the following three categories: short-timed, moderate-timed, and long-timed. A true union can be achieved only when a man satisfies a woman’s desire, lust, and passion. A perfect union is when a man and woman reach the climax together. Since it takes longer for females to climb to the peak of pleasure, it is a man's duty to sexually stimulate her prior to sex. 

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MAY 2021. UPDATED IN DECEMBER 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices