The Kama Sutra - The Richard Burton Classic Translation

Introduction by K. M. Panikkar. This book, a Sanskrit book of about the third century, has for long been honoured in India as the earliest Indian treatise on the science and art of sex and love. It describes social customs in early India, analyses sexual techniques and comments on the many different situations in which men and women of the day might find themselves involved and how best these should be dealt with. Its purpose is to discover in what ways happiness and enjoyment can be best achieved. While sharing the Indian attitude to love as an ecstatic experience, it assumes that sexual happiness is founded on scientific knowledge and to this end it provides a series of chapters based on the practical experience of sex. In this respect it was a forerunner of the modern marriage guidance book. The Kama Sutra underlies all later Indian writings on love including Sanskrit love poetry and is a classic contribution to Indian culture. The Preface by W. G. Archer discusses the circumstances in which the translation was made, its place in Western studies of Indian culture and the respective roles of Sir Richard Burton and his friend, Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot. Sardar K. M. Panikkar explains in his Introduction how the Kama Sutra is valued and appreciated in India.