Kama Sutra Illuminated: Erotic Art of India FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The Kama Sutra is an ancient Sanskrit text, composed by the fourth-century Hindu sage Vatsyayana, that provides guidance and insight into the art of love. Because the text grew out of an oral tradition, it consists of aphoristic verses (sutras), which were easily memorized but difficult to understand without the addition of explanations and images. First translated into English by Sir Richard Burton at the end of the nineteenth century, this text is available in many editions, none of them illustrated as lavishly as this volume and none providing such a rich survey of nearly two thousand years of Indian sensual art." "These diverse visual interpretations of the text, which depict explicit instructions regarding correct and incorrect sexual behavior during courtship and marriage - and other, more illicit situations - range from temple architecture and bronze sculpture to medieval court painting and cave frescoes. The examples presented here are brilliantly reproduced and accompanied by explanatory text discussing the context in which these images were created. Alongside the reproductions are relevant Sanskrit verses and ancient commentaries, with new translations by Andrea Marion Pinkney and excerpts from the Burton translation." This elaborate presentation of the Kama Sutra not only provides visual illustrations of the world's most famous erotic text, but it also reveals the dramatic beauty of Indian erotic art and the range of artistic response to the Kama Sutra through the centuries.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
There has been a spate of recent translations of this ancient Indian manual for creating balance in one's love life (and maximizing pleasure in the process). Pinkney, a doctoral candidate in Religions and Languages of North India at Columbia University, returns to what she finds to be key passages in Sir Richard Francis Burton's 19th century translation-"Do what is done-/ To a slap, slap back./ And in the same way/ Return kisses with kisses"-illustrating them with reproductions from the rich tradition of Indian sensual art. With detailed explanations and contextualizations, Pickney tries to get close to the original intentions of Hindu sage Vatsyayana in composing his fourth century text. She is aided by 200 full-color images of sculptures, paintings and objects depicting sexual acrobatics gathered by Lance Dane (a founder of Delhi's Sanskriti Museum of Every Day Art), which concretize the sage's advice on everything from "how to inspire confidence in her" to the use of dildos. Beyond the various positions for intercourse, Vatsyayana produced a masterful series of lists, some of which might pique the ire of feminists. Within a list about "types of women known to turn from propriety," he includes "high-rollers," "opinionated women," and "actors' wives." Although society has (perhaps) changed, the intricate ways lovers can bite or scratch each other have not, and this book reminds that the look of love is as old as it is beautiful. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
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