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Indian
Miniatures
To appreciate the erotic arts of India, one must understand the role of sex in the scheme of things according to Hinduism. Hinduism is a way of life according to prescribed codes. Every Hindu has to undergo sixteen denotary rituals (samskara) and four stages of life (ashramas). The final aim of life is salvation, which is the merging of the individual soul (atma) with the supreme soul (paramatma). One can attain salvation (moksha) through dharma, artha and kama. The ancient Indians took a healthy, integrated view of all aspects of life and gave sex its due importance in the overall picture. The pursuit of pleasure (kama) is one of the important aims of life, on the path to deliverance.
Due to their delicate nature, only a few paintings survived the onslaught of time and climatic hazards. The Narasimha Swamy temple of Sibi has such rare wall-paintings. In the last century, the kings of Mysore brought out some books of great importance, which are profusely illustrated with erotic art. Ancient books such as "Sougandhikaparinaya" and "Shritatwanidhi" contain illustrations which are indirect and suggestive, and yet very modest. Indian miniatures such as Basholi, Kangra and Rajasthani styles have produced innumerable erotic paintings to cater to their rich clientele.
Kama in the mythology of India, the god of love. During the Vedic age, he personified cosmic desire, or the creative impulse, and is called the first-born of the primeval chaos that makes all later creation possible. In later periods he is depicted as a handsome youth, attended by heavenly nymphs, who shoots love-producing flower-arrows.His bow is of sugarcane, his bowstring a row of bees. Once directed by the other gods to arouse Siva's (Shiva's) passion for Parvati, he disturbed the great god's meditation on a mountaintop. Enraged, Siva burned him to ashes with the fireof his third eye. Thus he became Anaṅga (Sanskrit: “the Bodiless”). But some accounts say Siva soon relented and restored him to life after the entreaties of his wife, Rati.
The term kama (Sanskrit kama) also refers to one of the proper pursuits of man in his role as a householder, that of pleasure and love. A classic textbook on erotics and other forms of human pleasure, the Kama-sutra, is attributed to thesage Vatsyayana.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Most important sex manual in mediaeval India
In the words of one jacket blurb: the "Koka Shastra" (Trans. A. Comfort, Allen & Unwin, 1964) and its associated texts are to mediaeval literature what the "Kama Sutra" was to ancient. When Kokkoka turned in the twelfth century to the themes of love and sex the move was audacious: for a thousand years the "Kama Sutra" representing the summed wisdom of earlier times, had been supreme. What more was there to say? Mediaeval India was different to the India of Vatsyayana. "A new approach was needed yet the early pages suggest that we are reading a new abridgement of the classic work, a sibling rather than a sequel." And Kokkoka frequently expresses his debt to the earlier master. The abiding value of the Sanskrit texts, as of many other ancient works, is the positive attitude to human sexuality.
First Indian sex manual translated into English
The "Ananga-Ranga", published three quarters of the way through the nineteenth century, was to have appeared as "The Kama Sutra", or "The Hindoo Art of love". Alas, the printer, after reading the galleys, lost his nerve and refused to go on with the job. A consequence is that the proof copies in existence are extremely rare. Arbuthnot and Richard Burton translated the "Ananga-Ranga" - which was not written by a holy man (as was the "Kama Sutra") but by a poet named Kalyana Mall. It has been published into many languages under a variety of titles "The Pleasures of Women", "The Form of the Bodiless One" "The Writ of Desire", etc.
Oldest Indian sex manual
The oldest and best known Indian sex manual is the "Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana", written about 1500 years ago. It has been pointed out that this comprehensive volume summarised many earlier writings on sexual topics dating back as much as three thousand years. The first English edition of the "Kama Sutra" was privately printed in 1883; the Indian "Ananga-Ranga" (or "The Stage of Love", also known as "Kamaled-hiplava" or "A Boat in the Ocean of Love") was translated into English ten years before the "Kama Sutra". This latter, more important work, is the first full manual from India devoted exclusively to the subject of human sexuality and in particular to the relationships between the sexes.
