Customer Reviews

The Complete Kama Sutra: The First Unabridged Modern Translation of the Classic Indian Text

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this book a few years ago and is one of the most intriguing books I have read. It gives an unique perspective at the life of ancient India (c 100-500AD) on how the people lived and the society flourished. What strikes most is when ancient India was talking about souls and spirits, on how life is vain etc, here is a book that says "being materialistic is not bad". If the society didnt consider that such a book isnt a blasphemy how great it should have been. And the book survived! Apart from the usual sexual poses, Kamasutra, is a history book. It also lists the 64 ancient arts of India, which I was trying to find for more than a decade and I never quiet expected to find in this book. Also the lives of courtesans are an interesting read.

Alan Danileou's translation is straightforward and it also includes commentaries on KS by other authors which helps to know different views. Though it lacks pictures (precisely the reason I bought it - not to get distracted from the original composition) it is a much better translation than Richard Burton's (which also I own). At times Richard gets squeaky in explaining very "intimate" things (its not a complete translation, looks like he left things that are too un-Victorian to translate) but Alan is more straightforward and complete.

Also translated are the chemistry of love potions, how to make money (of course not relevant to modern times) etc. If it contained the original Sanskrit quotations, I would have enjoyed the poetic flow. Anyways it adorns my book case.

It was the film "Kama Sutra" that led me to this classic. The idea of someone documenting various forms of making love was intriguing and I started exploring further on the original work. Once I got past a few mindnumbing translations, I discovered this work. I saw my initial curiosity turning into fascination at first, but when I finished the work I had nothing but respect for this work ("Eroticism is firstly a search for pleasure, and the goal of the techniques of love is to attain a paroxysm considered by the Upanishads ( holy texts) as a perception of the divine state, which is infinite delight ").Alan Danielou's seems to have impressive credentials that bring an impeccable authenticity to this work.

There is hardly a subject the author has not dealt with. If the range of subjects dealt with fascinates you (marriage, adultery, prostitution, group sex, sadomasochism, male and female homosexuality, and transvestitism) the scientific approach and the depth of classification in dealing with those subjects might bewilder you. ("There are different types of men and women according to their sizes of the organs, their moment of sexual enjoyment, and the violence of their sexual impulse"). The part dealing with occult practices is a blast. These practices include ointments for the body, marks on the forehead, powders sprinkled over the woman and substances that she be made to ingest, the surprising things she must be shown, as well as the means and remedies for subjugating her. This section also manifest the thoroughness of the research done almost 2000 years back.

While the considerable pains the author has undergone to protect the integrity of the original work makes this a classic, it is possible that at times the casual reader will be hard pressed to follow. The author emphasizes that this is not a pornographic work and is merely an impartial and systematic study of one of the essential aspects of existence. There is ample proof of that throughout the book.

This book was incredible. I felt a bit overwhelmed at first. So much writing and no pictures to show you different positions, etc. But it was so informative I had no idea how much I would learn from just one book. A definite must for anyone who is slightly insecure or bored with tradition sexual intercourse. (is there even such a thing any more?) I think that anyone who reads this book will definitly become a better lover, on one level or another.

This is an outstanding new translation of the Indian classic, dating from the fourth century BC. It is widely misunderstood in the west, largely by people who never read it, but also by people who only read Burton's unfortunate Victorian translation. Well over 500 pages, this may seem intimidating - I promise you, it's worth your effort.

This includes Vatsyayana's complete text, not just the extracts that Burton chose. Danielou interleaves it with not one, but two different commentaries, one traditional and one modern. These add insight, not just to the Vatsyayana text itself, but also to how later ages of India view this classic.

The Kama Sutra describes the culture in which it arose. At least for the upper classes, it's a remarkable image. Although male-dominated, women had surprising autonomy. Many services - jewelers, perfumers, and the like - create the objects and gifts of a rich society. Even prostitutes have a more or less respectable place in that world - more like geishas, entertainers with wide repertoires, not just vessels for sexual release.

This book is surprisingly clinical in its outlook. Vatsyayana describes a range of sexual practices. Some, he notes, are not widely considered proper - but all things have their time and place, if that's what the practitioners want. Describing a practice does not imply approval of it; in that vein, he mentions seductions and even capture of a woman by force. Prostitutes, too, have a code of behavior. Although they may develop feelings for a customer, their work is their business and their livelihood. This justifies, even demands behavior that would not be proper for a partner of another kind.

The largest part of the book is more mundane. It sets out a plan for being a happy, healthy member of society: the skills needed, grooming, social behaviors, and lots more. Despite repressive eras that followed (down to our own), the appeal of this document persists. Today's readers, nearly 2500 years later, can still learn from it, about that ancient time but also about our own.

//wiredweird

This book is overlooked by so many who desire to make love to their partners as though they were the only person in the world. The positions offered are incredible and although it may be uncomfortable to try some of them the ecstasy is well worth any discomfort or embarrassment. Try them! You will never experience total release from the world like lying in your lover's arm in one of these incredible positions!

a friend gave this book to me as a gift. i must admit that it wasn't quite what i expected - which was a blow-by-blow account of various sexual positions. first of all, this book has no drawings whatsoever! and i didn't expect to find that there were chapters dealing with seduction, mistresses, love potions, etc...i still found it a good book to read inspite of my initial 'disappointment'. it does live up to its (ill?) repute as a manual of sexual instruction, and it's translator, going by the short info given on him, appears to know whereof he speaks, what with his credentials as a Hindu scholar. leave your biases behind and pick up the book, you'll be glad you did. i wouldn't recommend trying the exotic love potions though! as for sex preferably not being learned from a book, i have this to say...of course no book on sexual instruction should be your bible to love-making, but we read up on chess, cooking, the news, and a whole range of other topics, so why not sex? a great many of us are a lot more ignorant than we think we are, and it's not always feasible to ask around, especially since i personally will not divulge any tricks i might have learned from my lover's bed, out of respect for our privacy.

For those who've been in their local bookstore and blushingly caught yourself serreptiously gawking at the rather explict photo books of the Kama Sutra, fear not this version. Sure, it is as thick as the common telephone book, but the wealth of information is worth the stress of holding its mass.
The Kama Sutra, in truth, goes way beyond sexual positions. It is not merely a coitus how-to manual, but a how-to for a way of life. There are whole chapters devoted to how to live in harmony with not only your mate, but with the world. Isn't this what love is all about? The advice within maybe thousands of years old, but is still relevant today.
Some may say as there aren't photos or illustrations, the description of the positions and how to carry them out is unclear. Suggestion: Isn't that the best motivation to test them out in a shared, devoted experience? Find out what you like! The Kama Sutra proposes you live life fully and in balance with your Other. Find a balance together!

I bought this book for my partner (at his request so I didn't read the reviews - oops) and we were both surprised by the actual contents. It was very interesting but buyers should know that it isn't an illustrated manual as others have mentioned. Rather, it is a thorough translation of an ancient text. Even though it wasn't what I expected I still thought it was a good read and would recommend it to anyone who wants sexual material which is more "cerebral" than most.

An enlightening book for those who would like to explore the lifestyles of Indian society in the time of Vatsyayana, and to consider the circumstances which conflicts everyday moral values for the pleasure of the body. The Kama Sutra teaches ways to utilize our bodies for sexual pleasure, or rather for the pleasure of our partners. This book delves into the rituals, notions and positions of sexual partners, depending on the situation, moods and overall effects that would like to be achieved during intercourse. An excellent work both for the intellectual and pleasure seeker.

There exist in every society those puritanical, cynical human beings who simply must rain on parades, in spite of the fact that, as we all know, they have some of the strongest sexual drives amongst us. Some of these individuals, who either do not read works carefully or are incapable of gathering meaning from what they read, are the ones that insist that the Kama Sutra should not be read. I suppose they are against sex education in schools as well. It is sad that they are amongst the ignorant mentioned in the book itself.

The authors of this magnificent, over 3,000 year old study of one element of our human nature stated in Mr Daneilou's scholarly, commendable translation that the work is to be read by "the citizen," meaning a person with both academic and moral education and the financial means to make use of the knowledge. The poor, as the work accurately mentions, are focused on survival and have no time to acquire the ability to comprehend the information. The uneducated or "ignorant-and-proud-of-it" ones are, by their own refusal to learn, unable to see this work as part of the "three aims of life (virtue/morality, financial prosperity and love/eroticism)." They therefore cannot differentiate between what is good or bad for themselves in it, and tend to see the work as a giant "how to" manual. This group includes fools who attempt to do and suggest their friends or mates do whatever is written in the book, and complain about the lack of pictures in this volume. As the authors and the translator on more than one occasion state that this is not a book on ethics, it is precisely this ability to comprehend and select what is good that makes this a work for those with the means to acquire and the ability to assimilate knowledge ONLY. In old India both men and women of good standing were expected to know the Kama Sutra back and forth, even though it was from the beginning never a work for open public discussion.

In ancient times, an educated person balanced this work with others on the other two aims of life. Today, the knowledgeable can do the same with the works of his or her choice. Those of us who are intelligent can take the male chauvinistic parts of the work and wonder at the progress we have made over the centuries, and wonder still at the progress we have yet to make. Those of us who really care about ridding our societies of some of the sick perversities we see in the papers today can examine, like surgeons, the ancient roots of these behaviors and develop a better base for dealing with and eradicating them. And last but not least, those who really want to understand how thorough knowledge leads to experiencing the kind of ecstatic sexual pleasure they thought only happens in the movies or porno books should get down to the business of learning some of the "64 arts" mentioned in the book, the very first of those being the reading and assimilation of The Kama Sutra. This work, in my opinion, is rated AANI (All Ages No Idiots).