For some folks, the Kamasutra is little greater than a reputation related to condom manufacturers, scented oils and goodies formed into erotic positions. In India, the place intercourse stays a taboo topic, this historical intercourse guide has usually been decreased to merely a “dirty book”.
However beneath this slim view lies a deeper message: the Kamasutra is a treatise on sexual autonomy, one which could possibly be revolutionary for girls.
In Indian society, ladies’s sexual pleasure is usually invisible, buried beneath layers of cultural silence. Ladies are sometimes taught to suppress their needs, their voices stifled by traditions that prioritise male wants. But, it was on this very nation that the Kamasutra was written.
Composed within the historical Sanskrit language within the third century by the Indian thinker Vatsyayana, the Kamasutra is greater than a guide about sexual positions. The phrase “kama” means love, intercourse, need and pleasure, whereas “sutra” interprets to a treatise. The textual content explores relationships, ethics and social norms. It provides a framework for mutual respect and understanding between companions.
In her 2016 guide Redeeming the Kamasutra, scholar of Indian tradition and society Wendy Doniger argues that Vatsyayana was an advocate of girls’s pleasure in addition to stressing their proper to schooling and the liberty to precise need. Removed from reinforcing male dominance, the Kamasutra initially emphasised the significance of mutual enjoyment and consent. It presents intercourse as a shared expertise somewhat than a male conquest.
Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890).
Rischgitz/Stringer/Wikimedia
The notion of the Kamasutra as a male-centred intercourse guide will be traced again to its first English translation by Sir Richard Burton in 1883.
Burton, a British soldier and explorer, omitted or altered passages that highlighted ladies’s autonomy. It shifted their function from lively individuals to passive recipients of male pleasure.
In distinction, students similar to Ganesh Saili have argued that the Kamasutra initially depicted ladies as equal companions in intimacy. In line with the textual content, ladies communicated their wants by means of gestures, feelings and phrases, making certain that their pleasure was simply as valued as males’s. Importantly, dialog performed a central function in intimacy, reinforcing the need of a lady’s consent earlier than having intercourse.
Regardless of this wealthy historical past, Indian society continues to largely suppress discussions round feminine sexuality. Indian intercourse educator and journalist Leeza Mangaldas argues that girls’s sexual pleasure stays a taboo subject, policed by cultural expectations that dictate ladies should stay silent, subservient and sexually inactive earlier than marriage.
Social scientist, Deepa Narayan, argues that this suppression begins at house. Ladies are sometimes taught to disclaim their very own our bodies and prioritise male needs.
The title web page of the 1883 version of Sir Richard Burton’s translation.
Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY
This management extends to patriarchal social norms that uphold virginity as a advantage for girls whereas imposing no such expectation on males. Intercourse is framed as one thing ladies “give” somewhat than one thing they expertise. Pleasure is seen with no consideration for males however merely an afterthought for females. Intercourse is for males however for girls, it’s only for producing infants.
But the Kamasutra itself tells a special story. In its unique kind, it described ladies as lively individuals of their pleasure and in contrast their sensuality to the delicacy of flowers – requiring care, consideration and respect.
My very own analysis explores “Kamasutra feminism”. That is the concept that this historical textual content is not only about intercourse however about sexual autonomy. It challenges patriarchal norms by selling ladies’s freedom to articulate their needs and take management of their pleasure. The Kamasutra rejects the notion that girls’s sexuality must be regulated or repressed. As an alternative, it advocates for mutual satisfaction and consent.
Doniger describes the Kamasutra as a feminist textual content, citing its emphasis on ladies selecting their companions, expressing their needs freely and interesting in pleasurable sexual relationships. It recognises financial independence as an important think about ladies’s sexual autonomy. Monetary freedom is linked to the flexibility to make private decisions.
An unique Kamasutra manuscript web page preserved within the vaults of the Raghunath Temple in Jammu & Kashmir.
Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY
Patriarchy versus sexual liberty
Finally, the Kamasutra represents a conflict between patriarchy – the place ladies’s sexuality is managed – and a imaginative and prescient of sexual liberty. It provides another narrative, one the place seduction is about mutual enjoyment somewhat than male domination. Its teachings encourage open discussions about intimacy, permitting ladies to reclaim their voices in relationships.
For greater than a century, the Kamasutra has been misinterpreted, its radical message buried beneath layers of censorship and cultural disgrace. But when we glance past its erotic popularity, we discover a textual content that speaks to the significance of consent, equality and feminine company.
Reclaiming the Kamasutra as a information for sexual empowerment might assist dismantle deeply ingrained taboos and reshape the dialog round ladies’s pleasure. In a world the place feminine need continues to be extensively policed, this historical manuscript reminds us that girls’s pleasure is just not a luxurious, however a proper.
