Product Description

This definitive volume is the first modern translation of Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra to include two essential commentaries: the Jayamangala of Yashodhara and the modern Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastri. Alain Danilou spent four years comparing versions of the Kama Sutra in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and English, drawing on his intimate experience of India, to preserve the full explicitness of the original. I wanted to demystify India, he writes, to show that a period of great civilization, of high culture, is forcibly a period of great liberty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26726 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09
• Format: Abridged
• Original language: Sanskrit
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Times Literary Supplement
Danilou's new and complete translation of the Kama Sutra is one of his masterpieces. It is all enchantment, a world of refined sensation totally without humbug. Our debt to his scholarship and humanity is immeasurable.

Library Journal
Noted Indiologist Danilou provides a fluent and literal translation of the entire Sanskrit original. An important advance over Burton's Victorian abridgment.

The Guardian Weekend
Dildo was translated as "medicine." Lesbian was just "corrupt woman." No wonder we couldn't follow any of the instructions in the Kama Sutra. But now, there's a new translation of the oldest sex manual, the first since the Victorians brought it home and hid it under the mattress.

Customer Reviews

Life saver, A must read for all couples and singletons alike
I bought this book as a way of expanding my life with my partner. I had no idea how useful it would be.

When I first got it I was dissapointed (no pictures)how wrong I was. since reading this book I have find out ways of calming myself, tackling problems in life, getting on well with other people and you wouldn't belive the tricks I have learn't for the bedroom :-D

This is not a book on sex, it is a manual on life. it is a guide by which you can learn to approach all aspects of humanity in a way which helps to improve on situations and get what you want out of life.

As far as my partner is concerned I wish I had bought this book sooner. I now know a hundred subtle ways of making feel appreciated and satisfied, from a breath on her neck to things that can't be mentioned on a web site that doesn't charge ;-D. I feel that this book is a must for any person who is serious about making themselves and their closest loved ones as happy as possible.

A Translation par Excellence
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.

Go beyond the coffee table versions
This book is a modern translation of the original text, and is a highly academic treatment. Unfortunately it is rather confusingly laid out, there are three strands of text running concurrently the literal translation, period commentary and authors commentary. Despite this it is readable though bordering on the tome in dimensions you can zip through the translation which is actually not very long.

On a more practical level I have found some of the advice to be very good - but you have to read this in context. If you are unfamiliar with the original text then you should be aware that this is not a 'positions' book, the majority of the Kama Sutra is devoted to relationships between men and women, courting, marrige etc. It is a facinating insight into an ancient civilisation, and underlying it is a fundamental understanding of what makes people tick.

This is an obvious choice for the those who wish to read the whole book, because the earlier Burton translation was edited by Victorian sensibilties. However if you just want to get a sense of this work you might consider the earlier version on grounds of cost.

Whichever version you get you will find this a facinating read, especially if you like the perfumed garden, now all I need is a translation of the chinese taos...