Part
I
On
Sexual Congress
Men should study the Kama Sutra and the arts and sciences
subordinate thereto, in addition to the study of the arts and sciences contained
in Dharma and Artha. Even young
maids should study this Kama Sutra along with arts and sciences before marriage,
and after it they could continue to do so with the consent of their husbands.
Here
some learned men object, and say that females, not being allowed to study any
science, should not study the Kama Sutra. But
Vatsyayana is of the view that this objection does not hold good, for women
already know the practice of Kama Sutra, and that practice is derived from the
Kama Shastra, or the science of Kama itself. Moreover, it is not only in this but in many other cases that
though the practice of a science is known to all, only a few persons are
acquainted with the rules and laws on which the science is based.
Thus the Yadnikas or sacrificers, though ignorant of grammar, make use of
appropriate words when addressing the different deities, and do not know how
these words are framed. Again,
persons do the duties required of them on auspicious days, which are fixed by
astrology, though they are not acquainted with the science of astrology.
In a like manner riders of horses and elephants train these animals
without knowing the science of training animals, abut from practice only.
And similarly the people of the most distant provinces obey the laws of
the kingdom from practice, and because there is a king over them, and without
further reason. And from experience
we find that some women, such as daughters of princes and their ministers, and
public women, were actually versed in the Kama Shastra.
A
female, therefore, should learn the Kama Shastra, or at least part of it, by
studying its practice from some confidential friend. She should study alone in private the sixty-four practices
that form a part of the Kama Shastra. Her
teacher should be one of the following persons, viz. the daughter of a nurse brought up with her and already
married, or a female friend who can be trusted
in everything, or the sister of her mother(i.e. her aunt), or and old female
servant, or a female beggar who may have formerly lived in the family, or her
own sister, who can always be trusted.