The Kama Sutra Of Vatsayayana
by Mallanaga Vatsyayana (Author)
Translated By Sir Richard Burton, [1883]
The Kama Sutra is famous as an ancient Hindu sex manual. But its significance goes much deeper -- it is also a spiritual guide. In the Tantric sects, the union of the god Shiva and the goddess Shakti symbolizes the union of all opposites in the One, and also symbolizes the unity of the individual consciousness with the One. As the Upanishads put it, "In the embrace of his beloved, a man forgets the whole world, everything both within and without. In the same way, he who embraces the Self knows neither within nor without."
"Kamasutra (also Kama Sutra), is an ancient Indian text widely considered to be the standard work on love in Sanskrit literature. It is said to be authored by Mallanaga Vatsyayana. A portion of the work deals with human sexual behavior.
The Kama Sutra is most notable of a group of texts known generically as Kama Shastra (Sanskrit: Kama Sastra).
About the Author
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"Mallanaga Vatsyayana is the name of an Indian philosopher in the Carvaka or Lokyata tradition, who lived some time in the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries CE ). He is known as the author of the Kama Sutra, and of Nyaya Sutra Bhashya, the first commentary on Gotama's Nyaya Sutras."
About the Translator:
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Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include traveling in disguise to Mecca, making an unexpurgated translation of The Book of One Thousand Nights and A Night (the collection is more commonly called The Arabian Nights in English because of Andrew Lang's abridgement) and the Kama Sutra and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans, guided by Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. He was a prolific author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including travel, fencing and ethnography.
He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals which discovered Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.
