/sex/
Sexuality
[25 TEXTS]
// Key Texts
// Kama Sutra
In addition to Tantra, which attributes a spritual dimension to sexuality, India has produced a rich literature of sophisticated sex manuals. In spite of their practical nature, they demonstrate how Indian culture integrated sexuality into everyday life, (including religion and spirituality). This knowledge was supposed to be part of the repetoire of any intelligent and well-educated adult. Several of these were translated in the Victorian Era by freethinking Orientalists. These translations (as well as the Perfumed Garden and the Priapeia) were produced by Sir Richard Burton and Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot and published by the Kama Shastra Society (founded 1882). Sir Richard Burton [1821-1890] (not to be confused with the screen actor) was an orientalist and daring explorer. Fluent in Arabic and Islamic culture, Burton was the first Westerner to enter Mecca (in disguise). He is also known for his unexpurgated translation of the Arabian Nights. F.F. Arbuthnot did most of the actual work of the translations of the Indian works, while working for the Indian Civil Service in Bombay from 1868 to 1879. He was able to consult original texts of the Kama Sutra and Ananga Ranga and discuss their contents with Indian scholars. The texts were printed 'for private circulation only' -- a disclaimer required in the stifling atmosphere of Victorian England.
Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana
by Richard Burton · 1883
The earliest and best known of the Indian sex manuals.
