The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana

by Sir Richard Burton


Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of "The Kama Sutra" remains one of the best English interpretations of this early Indian treatise on politics, social customs, love, and intimacy. Its crisp style set a new standard for Sanskrit translation.


"The Kama Sutra" stands uniquely as a work of psychology, sociology, Hindu dogma, and sexology. It has been a celebrated classic of Indian literature for 1,700 years and a window for the West into the culture and mysticism of the East. This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the authoritative text of Sir Richard F. Burton's 1883 translation.


The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian text which is considered the primary Sanskrit work on human sexuality. It was written by Mallanaga Vatsyayana in the 2nd century CE. Although Burton published this, the most widely known English translation, he was not the author of the translation, although he did provide footnotes and the introduction. The bulk of the translation was performed by an Indian archaeologist, Bhagvanlal Indraji and civil servant Foster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, with the assistance of a student, Shivaram Pashuram Bhide. This is one of the first systematic studies of human sexual behavior in world literature. It also documents the sociology of sex in India eighteen centuries ago.