Perceived as a byword for sex and appropriated over centuries to sell products and services with sexual implications, the Kama Sutra is shedding its ‘closet status’ and could soon be mainstream reading, says A N D Haksar, whose book on the ancient text in now in paperback.
“I feel that the book, which has been seen only in terms of sex, is receiving the kind of notice which I feel has been deprived in the past,” says Haksar, who has translated Vatsyayana’s commentary on the art of love and social conduct into English.
While numerous books with the title Kama Sutra have flooded the market over the years, those which have reproduced the authentic text are few and far between, claims Haksar, a former diplomat who has translated several Sanskrit classics. Commissioned by Penguin Books to do a translation for their Classics series, Haksar says he had never previously read the text.
“I had seen picture books of Kama Sutra everywhere, more of illustrated versions with very little or absolutely no text. I got hold of the original text and going through it discovered that it was made up of seven books or chapters and only one out of them related to sex and that had achieved such celebrity or rather notoriety,” the author told said in an interview.
The time has arrived to bring the book out in its totality, claims Haksar whose translation “Kama Sutra: A Guide to the art of Pleasure” was first published to much critical acclaim in the UK in the year 2011.
“Sex is certainly there but so are the guidelines on social life, about courtship, married life, ways of gracious living. Details of lifestyle of an elegant man or lady is also described in detail, advice which holds true even today,” says the author.
Scholars have placed the Kama Sutra to be written around 200 to 300 AD. “It is about 1700 or 1800 years old. Some say it’s 2000 years old but just about that.” says Haksar.
The author points out that Richard Burton had translated the text into English in the 19th century. “Burton was employed with the office of the East India company and most of the postings in west India in Bombay involved in Sindh War. He was also in other parts of the world and is better known as an explorer and a linguist and his translation was printed privately because of Victorian times prudishness.”
The text accompanied by erotic illustrations, says the author, has had many pirated versions in English as well as other European languages and this went on for 80-odd years till the book was published formally in the middle of the 20th century. “Maybe it had got to do with some kind of revision of public attitude.”
“Kama Sutra had a surreptitious circulation. My opinion is that this surreptitious circulation gave it the impression of being a closet book or one that should be kept away… In this country because of the lasting influence of Western values it persisted in the system longer..” says Haksar.
Even bookshops do not display the book prominently. “I tried out a small experiment and inquired about my book at a bookshop in Delhi and they too stacked it discreetly towards the rear. Very recently, however that trend seems to be changing with many version of KS coming out again in a public way. It is now been written seriously and not just a sex book. It is actually an account of social life as well as sex life,”
says the author.
The book is divided into sections with chapter headings that read “The training of girls”, “The quarrel in Love”, “Girls to avoid”,”The only wife”, “Making a Pass,” “Sending love tokens” ,”His background” ,”Is he worthwhile?” ,”Kinds of doubt” etc.
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