There’s a lot of ancient hindu texts that have been studied for their philosophy. The kama sutra is so sensationalized but apparently it’s way more than a sex guide. “Kama” means desire, one of the four goals of a Hindu life (dharma – ethics, artha – wealth/livelihood, kama – pleasure, moksha – liberation). Sutra means “thread”. In reality this is a text written as sanskrit prose and poetry about their understanding of the nature of love and relationships.
There is an uncomfortable chapter on sex positions…but the other parts are just plain weird! The sections that stand out are those on “acquiring a wife”, “privileges of the wife”, “other men’s wives” as if there is some sort property or ownership. Sometimes it speaks of a chief wife, etc.
When I searched hard about this on the internet, I couldn’t find very many scholarly articles, but wikipedia seemed to cite a few. Because it was written so long ago, it is hard to say what dynamic in society inspired such a text. It is estimated to have been written in 200-400 B.C.
It first became famous in Western culture when explorer/geographer Richard Burton published it in English. He liked to dabble in international affairs. Either way, that original translation is what made it out to be some sort of sex book. Upon further research, it’s kind of just a weird interpretation of what a marriage should look like? For example, it tells you that you can’t marry a women who smells bad, a leper or a fortune teller. The fortune teller one seems kind of random…
The Western translation made for very bad comparisons when in reality I think this book may have been trying to explain confusion. I suppose in such a society where kings rule, classes don’t speak to one another, and interaction between people only happens for business, men were just confused? More research on the Kama Sutra actually confused me even more, because really it’s just a book on how to attain pleasure of the senses. It’s not a tale of passion that I thought it was, but is really just a “how to” book.
But, I do see why India is such a patriarchal society. The whole book is written in perspective of what the MAN has to do for “love” (in quotes because the book is weird af and idt it describes love). I really hope Dr. Babich isn’t offended, but for example, a sex position where the woman is in control is called “woman plays man”, as if she’s playing a man’s role! There are some subtle and not so subtle connotations when you get down to the nitty gritty of the Kama Sutra, which explains why it isn’t just some sex book but a book on how the idea of desire fits into Hindu society. So much of it has to do with how a man attains a woman, what kind of woman makes the perfect wife, etc, which gives me the idea that patriarchy was instilled in these people from the WAY beginning.