Classical Hindu Erotology

In translating the Anunga Runga, it was discovered that the name of Vatsyayana was frequently mentioned. The Pandits wording on the translation stated that Vatsyayana was the most important of all writers on Hindu erotology, and they claimed that no library was complete without his worlds, though it is almost impossible to find any extant copies today.

When eventually a manuscript of the Kama Sutra was found in Bombay, it was found to be so defective that the Sanskrit scholars had to write to Benares, Calcutta and Jaipur to try to get other copies of the work. Then these copies were compared along with a commentary called the Jayamangla, and a final revised version was prepared. This is the copy that was used for the English translation of 1885. In fact, a letter from one of the Pandits who worked on the translation states: ‘This manuscript has been corrected by me after comparing jour different copies of the work. I was helped by a commentary called Jayamangla to correct certain passages of the first five scripts, but the rest was very difficult to correct. With the exception of one copy, all the rest were full of faults. All the same, I considered as correct the passages on which all jour copies were in accord.

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana contains 1250 verses divided into parts. These parts are divided into chapters, and the latter are again divided into paragraphs. Nothing is known about the author. His name was probably Mallinga or Mrillana, Vatsyayana being his family name. It is impossible to fix the dates of his life or when he wrote his great work. One concludes, however, that he lived some time between the first and sixth centuries A.D., because he states that Shatakarni Shatavahana, King of Kuntal, failed his wife, Malayavati, by striding her during the passion of intercourse with an instrument known as kartari.

This king is supposed to have lived in the First Century A.D., so Vatsyayana must have lived later. On the other hand, Virahamihira, who lived in the 6th Century A.D., borrows a great deal from Vatsyayana in his treatise of love, Brihatsanhita. Therefore, it is assumed that Vatsyayana lived after the First Century A.D. and before the 6th Century.