© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert

THE  KAMA  SUTRA

OF

VATSYAYANA.

Empress Helga of Kiev Deluxe Edition

TRANSLATED FROM THE SANSCRIT OF INDIA

INTO THE NORSE MINISCULE FONT OF ALCUIN

BY PRINCE HRAERIK ‘BRAGI’ HRAEGUNARSON

Note: This website is about Vikings and Varangians and the way they lived over a thousand years ago. The content is as explicit as Vikings of that time were and scenes of violence and sexuality are depicted without reservation or apology. Reader discretion is advised.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

PART I. THE KAMA SUTRA OF VATSYAYANA

Chapter I. Salutation to Dharma, Artha And Kama

Chapter II. On The Acquisition Of Dharma, Artha And Kama

Chapter III. On The Arts And Sciences To Be Studied

Chapter IV. The Life Of A Citizen

Chapter V. About The Kinds Of Women Resorted To By Citizens…

PART II. OF SEXUAL UNION AND LOVE

Chapter I. Of The Kinds Of Sexual Union And Of Love

Chapter II. Of The Embrace

Chapter III. Of The Kiss

Chapter IV. Of The Marking, Or Scratching With Nails

Chapter V. On Biting And The Means To Be Employed…

Chapter VI. Of The Ways Of Lying Down And Congress

Chapter VII. Of The Various Modes Of Striking

Chapter VIII. About Women Acting The Part Of A Man

Chapter IX. Of The Auparishtaka Or Mouth Congress

Chapter X. Of The Way To Begin And To End The Congress

PART III. ABOUT THE ACQUISITION OF A WIFE

Chapter I. On Marriage

Chapter II. Of Creating Confidence In The Girl

Chapter III. On Courtship And The Manifestation Of Feelings

Chapter IV. About Things To Be Done Only By The Man

Chapter V. On Certain Forms Of Marriage

PART IV. ABOUT A WIFE

Chapter I. On The Manner Of Living Of A Virtuous Woman

Chapter II. On The Conduct Of Wives

PART V. ABOUT THE WIVES OF OTHER MEN

Chapter I. Of The Characteristics Of Men And Women

Chapter II. About Making Acquaintance With The Woman

Chapter III. Examination Of The State Of A Woman’s Mind

Chapter IV. About The Business Of A Go-Between

Chapter V. Of Persons In Authority And The Wives Of Other Men

Chapter VI. About The Women Of The Royal Harem

PART VI. ABOUT COURTESANS

Introductory Remarks

Chapter I. Of The Causes Of A Courtesan Resorting To Men…

Chapter II. Of Living Like A Wife

Chapter III. Of The Means Of Getting Money

Chapter IV. About Re-Union With A Former Lover

Chapter V. Of Different Kinds Of Gain

Chapter VI. Of Gains And Losses; Attendant Gains And Losses

PART VII. OF MEANS OF ATTRACTING OTHERS TO YOURSELF

Chapter I. On Personal Adornment And The Hearts Of Others

Chapter II. Of Ways Of Exciting Desire And Recipes

Concluding Remarks and of The Aesir Way and The Vanir Way

INTRODUCTION

In both the recited and written literature of all countries there will be found a certain number of works treating especially of love.  Everywhere the subject is dealt with differently, and from various points of view.  In the present publication it was written from a Vanir religious perspective in Sanscrit, and which is called ‘The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana,’ or The Way of Love by Vatsyayana.

Vatsyayana Mallanaga is its widely accepted author and it was written in Pataliputra (Patna) on the River Ganges circa 225 AD.  While the author attributes much of his work to prior authors, much of the work has been written by Vatsyayana after extensive meditation on the subject.  Much information was also gleaned from the Sanscrit Vedas which were more extensive than they presently are.  It is still advisable to furnish here a brief analysis of prior works of the same nature, prepared by authors who lived and wrote years before Vatsya, but who the author considered to be great authorities on the subject of Vanir erotic literature.

Besides the treatise of Vatsyayana, the prior works on the same subject are still procurable in India:

 1. The Secrets of Lust by Auddalaki.

 2. The Arrows of Love by Babhravya.

 3. The Sea of Love by Dattaka.

 4. The Flower of Love by Suvarnanabha.

 5. The Blossoming of Love by Gonardiya.

 6. The Stages of Lust by Gonikaputra.

Some of the things treated of in these works are not to be found in the Vatsyayana, such as the four classes of women, being: the Padmini, Chitrini, Shankini and Hastini, as also the enumeration of the days and hours on which the women of the different classes become subject to love.  The author adds that he wrote many things from the opinions of Kuchumara and Nandikeshwara, both of whom are mentioned by Vatsyayana, but their works are not now extant.

The contents of some these works are in themselves a literary curiosity.  There are to be found both in Sanscrit poetry and in the Sanscrit drama a certain amount of poetical sentiment and romance, which have, in every country and in every language, thrown an immortal halo round the subject.  But here it is treated in a plain, simple, matter of fact sort of way.  The Vanir Way.  One can see the parallels between the Vanir and Aesir Ways as well as the discrepancies and flaws of both.  These are pointed out in [brackets] where applicable.

Men and women are divided into Vanir classes and divisions in the same way that Pliny and other writers on natural history have classified and divided the animal world.  As Venus was represented by the Vanir Greeks to stand forth as the type of beauty of woman, so the Vanir Bhramans 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 [honey well] 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 [silks], 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 Bhramans.  Such, then, is the Padmini or Lotus woman.

Detailed descriptions then follow of the Mrigi or Deer woman; the Vadawa or Mare 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 Indostan.  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 Anglish language is somewhat similar to these works of the Indo Vanir.  It is called ‘The Laws of Female Beauty,’ being the elementary principles of that science, written in the time of Alfred ‘the Great’, with twenty-four paintings, and copied in London in 881.  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 of the defects of female beauty.

After a perusal of the Vanir work, and of the Anglish book 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.

It may be interesting to some persons to learn how it came about that Vatsyayana was first brought to light to be translated into the Norse language.  It happened thus:

While King Ivar ‘Harde Knute’ Hraerikson was starting up direct trade with India via the Caliphate of Baghdad, the concubine slaves he was selling there were constantly being described as a Padmini or Lotus woman, or a Chitrini or Art woman, or a Shankini or Conch woman, or ofttimes a Mrigi or Deer woman; or a Vadawa or Mare woman, or a Hastini or Elephant woman and reference was frequently found to be made to one Vatsyayana.  The sage writings of Vatsya was of this opinion, or of that opinion.  The sage Vatsya said this, and so on.  Naturally questions were asked about who this sage was, and the clients replied that Vatsyayana 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 Mumba was defective, and so the princes sent messengers to Pataliputra to get 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 called ‘Sutra Vritti’ a revised copy of the entire manuscript was prepared, and from this copy the Norse translation was made.  The following is the certificate of the chief pundit:

“The accompanying manuscript is corrected by me after comparing four different copies of the work.  I had the assistance of a Commentary called ‘Sutra Vritti’ for correcting the portion in the first five parts, but found great difficulty in correcting the remaining portion, because, with the exception of one copy thereof which was tolerably correct, all the other copies I had were far too incorrect.  However, I took that portion as correct in which the majority of the copies agreed with each other.”

The ‘Way of Love,’ by Vatsyayana, contains about one thousand two hundred and fifty slokas or verses, and are divided into parts, parts into chapters, and chapters into paragraphs. The whole consists of seven parts, thirty-six chapters, and sixty-four paragraphs.  Hardly anything is known about the author.  His real name is supposed to be Mallinaga or Mrillana, Vatsyayana being his family name.  At the close of the work this is what he writes about himself:

“After reading and considering the works of Babhravya and other ancient authors, and thinking over the meaning of the rules given by them, this treatise was composed, according to the precepts of the Holy Writ, for the benefit of the world, by Vatsyayana, while leading the life of a religious student at Benares, and wholly engaged in the contemplation of the Deity.  This work is not to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires.  A person acquainted with the true principles of this science, who preserves his Dharma (virtue or religious merit), his Artha (worldly wealth) and his Kama (pleasure or sensual gratification), and who has regard to the customs of the people, is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses.  In short, an intelligent and knowing person, attending to Dharma and Artha and also to Kama, without becoming the slave of his passions, will obtain success in everything that he may do.”

It is impossible to fix the exact date either of the life of Vatsyayana or of his work.  It is supposed that he must have lived between the first and the third centuries of the Christian era, on the following grounds:

He mentions that Satkarni Srtvahan, a king of Kuntal, killed Malayevati his wife with an instrument called Kartari by striking her in the passion of love, and Vatsya quotes this case to warn people of the danger arising from some old customs of striking women when under the influence of this passion.  Now this king of Kuntal is believed to have lived and reigned during the first century AD, and consequently Vatsya must have lived after him.  On the other hand, Virahamihira, in the eighteenth chapter of his ‘Brihatsanhita,’ treats of the science of love, and appears to have borrowed largely from Vatsyayana on the subject.  Now Virahamihira is said to have lived during the sixth century AD, and as Vatsya must have written his works previously, therefore not earlier than the first century, AD, and not later than the sixth century AD, must be considered as the approximate date of his existence.  Since the laws of the Gupta Empire of the third century are not mentioned, he may be considered to have lived prior to that.  On the text of the ‘Way of Love,’ by Vatsyayana, only one commentary has been found called ‘Sutra Vritti.’  This commentary was most useful in explaining the true meaning of Vatsyayana, for it was written by Narsing Shastri, a pupil of a Sarveshwar Shastri; the latter was a descendant of Bhaskur, and so also was our author, for at the conclusion of every part he calls himself Bhaskur Narsing Shastra.  He was induced to write the work by order of the learned Raja Vrijalala, while he was residing in Benares, but as to the merits of this commentary it does not deserve much commendation.  In many cases the writer does not appear to have understood the meaning of the original author, and has changed the text in many places to fit in with his own explanations.  A complete translation of the original work now follows. It has been prepared in complete accordance with the text of the manuscript, and is given, without further comments, as made from it.

NOTE:  Differences Between Aesir and Vanir Philosophies are Detailed in Brackets[ ]

              This Empress Helga Deluxe Edition recopying is complete with some art that was drawn and painted of Helga over her years as a Princess and Queen of Kiev and later, as an Empress of Constantinople.  Typically, to save the Empress’s time, a number of artists of different styles were employed to execute the same poses simultaneously, then the preferred art was incorporated into whichever media it was required for.  In this edition numerous styles of art of the same pose are exhibited throughout, many for the first time, to juxtapose and exhibit the various styles of the individual artists.  Enjoy…