Natyashastra the ancient Indian textbook of dance and drama, attributed to Bharata xxv
nayaka, nayika hero and heroine of the Indian drama xxv
nightshade, brihati Solanum 169
nipa see jasmine
Ocean of Story see Kathasaritsagara
Orientalism imperialist attitude to the peoples of the East xxxv, lviii, lxiv, 126, 163, 210
orris root, vaca Acorus calamus (an aromatic root; also called beewort, cinnamon sedge, myrtle flag, spice-wort, sweet rush) 164
Ovid Latin author xv, xvi
Padmashri Bhikshu author of the Nagarasarvasva which Shastri cites often; perhaps a Jaina or Buddhist monk 175–6, 179, 199
Panchala a Vedic people and ancient country in central Northeast India, southeast of the present Delhi 4, 16, 39–40, 117, 137, 193–4
pander or voluptuary, vita xxv, 18, 21, 27, 36, 73, 109, 131, 136, 159, 169, 175, 187–8
Pandya an ancient country and dynasty at the southernmost tip of India 59
panic-seed, priyangu Panicum italicum, Agladia odurata, Sinapis ramose (said to put forth blossoms at the touch of women) 164, 170, 209
Parvati a goddess, the wife of Shiva xli, lvii, 182
patalika see scurvy grass
Pataliputra ‘Son of the Trumpet Flower,’ the name of an ancient city, the capital of the ancient country of Magadha, near the present city of Patna, in Bihar xi, xxix, 4–5, 67, 183
pepper, chavya Piper chaba 164
pepper, black, marica Strychnos putatorum 163
pepper, long, pippali Piper longum 163, 165
pippali see pepper, long
pithamarda see libertine
plum, Indian, talisha Flacourtia cataphracta, Abies Webbiana 161, 170
plum, Java, jambu Eugenia jambolana 169–70
pomegranate, dadima xxxii, 169
power 3–4, 6–13, 16, 23–4, 26, 75, 122–5, 129–30, 150–1, 154, 156–8, 171, 181, 183–5, 205–8; see also artha
pragmatists xiv, 11, 185
prickly pear, vajrakandaka Euphorbia neriifolia or antiquorom 170
priyala see almond
priyangu see panic seed
punarbhu see second-hand woman
punarnava see hog-weed
Puranas Sanskrit compendia of mythology xix, xxii, xxx, 1, lviii, 191
Pururavas a king who married the celestial courtesan Urvashi 3, 13, 181
queens 59, 102
Rama a prince, incarnation of the god Vishnu, see Sita
Ramayana the ancient Sanskrit epic about the god Rama and his wife Sita xxvii, xxxix, 205–6
Rambha a celestial nymph 134, 206
rape xxx–xxxi, 185, 195, 203, 206, 210
rattan, vyadhighataka Cathartocarpus fistula, Calamus rotang (also called cane, chair-bottom cane) 169
Ravana a demon king who abducted Sita, in the Ramayana 12, 134, 186, 206
religion, dharma xiii, xv, xviii, xx–xxi, 3–12, 75, 93, 97, 104–6, 129–30, 134, 141, 155–9, 170–1, 181–5, 203, 206, 209; see also dharma, power, release, renunciation
release, renunciation xiv, xix, xxxix, lv, 7, 9, 14, 25–6, 147, 184, 188–9, 206–8
Rig Veda the most ancient Indian text, a collection of 1,028 hymns xiii, xx–xxi, xxvii, xxxii, liii, lv, 39–40, 173, 179, 181, 193, 201
rosewood, shishupa Dalbergia sissoo 163
rue, somalata Ruta graveolens 169
sahadevi see savannah-flower
Saketa an ancient city in Koshala (present Fyzabad) 67
Sanskrit the literary language of ancient India xi–xii, xv–xvii, xxi, xxv, xxvii–xxxiii, xxxvi–xxxix, xli–xlii, xlvii, li, lv, lix–lxii, 21, 175, 182–9, 192–3, 195, 197, 200–9
saptaparna see devil tree
Sarasvati goddess of music, art, and literature 14, 19, 187
sariva see silk-cotton
sarjaka see dammar, rose
savannah-flower, mauve, sahadevi Sida cordifolia, Echites frutescens 161
Schmidt, Richard German translator of the Kamasutra xxxix, lvi, lix, lxi, 203–5
scurvy grass, patalika Cocculus hirsutus 94
second-hand woman, punarbhu 6, 22–3, 25, 74, 97, 100–2, 133, 188, 197, 201–2
shabarakanda see sweet potato
Shakuntala heroine of a story in the Mahabharata, later a drama by Kalidasa liii, 84, 91, 117, 179, 195, 200, 204
shala see dammar
shalmali see silk-cotton
shastra science or text xii–xiii, xvi–xvii, xxi, xxiv–xxv, xxix, xxxii, xxxiv–xxxv, liii–liv, 181
Shastri, Devadatta editor of and commentator on the Kamasutra xv, xix–xx, xxvii, xxx, xlviii-1, lxi, lxvi, 173–80, 183–4, 197–202, 208–9
Shatakarni Shatavahana a king of Kuntala 59
Shatapatha Brahmana an ancient Sanskrit text about the sacrifice 181, 184, 186, 205
shatavari see asparagus
shishupa see rosewood
Shiva god of yogis, god of the lingam xxxvi, xli, lvii, lxvi, 4–5, 179, 181–2, 191, 199
shlakshnaparni see ebony
shravana see heart seed
shringataka see chestnut, water
shriparni see flax
shvadamstra see ‘dog’s-fang’ prickly-fruit
Shvetaketu Auddalaki author of an early kama text, also a famous philosopher in the Upanishads, see Auddalaki
Siegel, Lee author of novel about the Kamasutra lix, 189, 194
silk-cotton tree, shalmali Bombax heptaphyllum, Salmalia malabarica (a tall, thorny tree with red flowers; its thorns are said to be used for torture in one of the hells) 20, 187
silk-cotton, yellow, sariva Hemidesmus indicus and Ichnocarpus frutescens 161
Sindh (or Sind) a region in Northwest India, now Pakistan li, 129
Sita wife of Rama, heroine of the Ramayana 12, 178, 186
snuhi see milk-hedge
soma see fly-agaric mushroom
somalata see rue
South India xi, xxxiv, xlvi, 46, 56, 58, 82, 167, 194–5
‘stallion’ the largest male 28–9, 36–7, 52–3, 55, 65, 105, 116, 190, 203
subhaga lucky in love 74, 89, 98, 116–17, 121, 132, 152, 156, 161–3, 176, 187, 202; see also durbhaga
sugandha see marjoram
sugar-cane, yashti Clerodendrum siphonatus 94
sugar-cane root, morata Alangium hexapetalum 164
sulphur, gandhapashana 163
surana see yam, round
Surasena an ancient country in the region of Mathura in North India 68
Surashtra the ancient peninsula of Kathiawar in West India, present Gujarat 125
Sushruta author of an ancient Sanskrit medical text, 1st cent, CE 176, 190, 197
sutra a Sanskrit stanza or text xi, xv–xvi, 171
Suvarnanabha author of an ancient kama text 5, 25, 41, 46, 50, 54, 62
svayamgupta see horse-eye bean
sweet potato, shabarakanda Symploca racemosa 169
tagara see bay, rose
talisha see plum
tamala see bay-tree, cinnamon
Tantra a Sanskrit text about rituals, sometimes sexual rituals xxix, 1, 173
teak, ‘elephant’s ear’, hastikarna Butea frondosa, Alocasia macrorrhiza (also called bastard teak, Bengal kino tree) 169
Teiresias a Greek prophet, said to have changed his sex 183, 193
third nature neither male nor female xxx, xxxiv–xxxviii, 25, 38, 65–7, 78, 189, 196–7, 209; see also homoeroticism
thorn-apple, white, dhatturaka Datura alba 163, 170
three aims of human life (purusharthas) xiv, 3, 7, 12, 23–4, 156, 181, 206, 208–9; see also artha, dharma, moksha
transference 37–8, 45, 71–2, 110–11
trapusha see cucumber
tumbi see gourd, long
uccata see kidney bean
Uddalaka Vedic philosopher and teacher 4, 182
upajihvika see ant
sophical texts composed from the 6th cent. BCE xiv, xx, xlviii, 173, 179, 181–4
Urvashi a celestial courtesan, married for a while to king Pururavas 3, 181
ushiraka see beard-grass
utilitarians 185
vaca see orris root
vajra see milkwort
vajrakandaka see prickly pear
vajravalli see heliotrope
Vanavasa a heavily forested ancient country in the area of the Western ghats, south and east of Bombay 50
Vanga an ancient country in ancient Bengal, in the area of the present Bangladesh 129
Varanasi (Benares, Kashi) ancient holy city on the Ganges 124
Vasishtha a sage, author of a dharma text 67, 196
Vatsagulma an ancient kingdom in the Deccan 125, 129
Veda the ancient corpus of sacred texts; more specifically, one of the three Vedas (Rig, Yajur, and Saman), or, with the Atharva, the four Vedas xxxii, xlviii, 1, 26, 92, 75, 166, 173, 175, 181–4, 193, 209, 210
Vidarbha an ancient country in the west central Deccan, in the area of the present north Maharashtra 20, 125, 129
vidari see cock’s-head
vidushaka see clown
Virasena a courtesan 5
vita pander or voluptuary, see pander
vyadhighataka see rattan
wormwood, damanaka Artemisia indica 96
yam, round, surana Amorphophallus companulatus 96
yashti see sugar-cane
yoni the female sexual organ lvii–lix, lxiii
Yudhishthira a king, son of Dharma, hero of the Mahabharata 26
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1 Since Kama is also the name of the Hindu god of erotic love, F. F. Arbuthnot referred to the Kama Shastra (the Anangaranga) as the Scripture of Cupid. See Archer, ‘Preface’, 24. (Full titles and details for all works cited are given in the Bibliography.)
2 The Kamasutra must have been written after 225 because the western Indian political situation that Vatsyayana describes shows the Abhiras and the Andhras ruling simultaneously over a region that had been ruled by the Andhras alone until 225. Its style seems very close to that of the Arthashastra, also of uncertain date, but generally placed in the 3rd century CE; it cites the Arthashastra explicitly at 1.2.10, and implicitly elsewhere. The fact that the text does not mention the Guptas, who ruled North India from the beginning of the 4th century CE, suggests that the text predates that period. The Kamasutra is mentioned by name in the Vasavadatta of Subandhu, composed under Chandragupta Vikramaditya, who reigned at the beginning of the 5th century CE. Chakladar, Social Life, passim; Syrkin, Kamasutra, 189; Mylius, Das Kamasutra, 16–18.
3 Laura Desmond, personal communication, September 2000.
4 Hampiholi, Kamashastra in Classical Sanskrit Literature.
5 Pollock, ‘The Theory of Practice and the Practice of Theory’.
6 Doniger, Siva: The Erotic Ascetic.
7 Doniger, ‘Three (or More) Forms’.
8 Shvetaketu introduces several key passages (in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.2 and Chandogya Upanishad 5.3–10) about the doctrine of five fires, of which one passage [6.2.13] goes: ‘A fire—that’s what a woman is, Gautama. Her firewood is the vulva; her smoke is the pubic hair; her flame is the vagina; when one penetrates her, that is her embers; and her sparks are the climax. In that very fire the gods offer semen, and from that offering springs a man.’ Olivelle, Upanishads, 83. S. K. De cites Shvetaketu Auddalaki as one of several indications that the Kamasutra began within the genre of religious literature (Ancient Indian Erotics, 89–90).
9 Foucault, The History of Sexuality, 57.
10 Ibid. 58.
11 Burton and Arbuthnot called the Anangaranga the Ars Amoris Indica. Archer, ‘Preface’, 32.
12 Syrkin, ‘Notes on the Kama Sutra’, 34. In ancient Greece, by contrast, the medical-scientific tradition of aphorisms, starting with Hippocrates, is used for forms of knowledge that cannot be formalized, that have a practical dimension (as in medicine and ethics, but also experimental science). For that tradition, the elliptical, compact form is more a mnemonic than an instruction book.
13 See Doniger, The Laws of Manu, liv–lvii.
14 These two phrases, and the broader idea of the conservative nature of the verses at the end of each chapter, are taken from William Bradford Hunt’s essay, ‘Sex for Dharma: Framing the Kamasutra in Manu’s World’.
15 In our day the author of a text like this might like to protect himself against possible lawsuits: ‘I got a whiplash from practising position 15.’ In fact, The Pillow Book Kama Sutra has a warning on the ISBN page: ‘WARNING: With the prevalence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, if you do not practice safe sex you are risking your life and your partner’s life.’ Compare Vatsyayana’s concern about ‘the Wedge’ at 2.7.24–7.
16 Griffith, The Hymns of the RgVeda, 597.
17 Verse 16 (of which 17 is a mirror image) may be translated into indecent English thus: ‘That one is not powerful, whose penis hangs between his thighs; that one is powerful, for whom the hairy organ opens as it swells and sets t
o work. Indra supreme above all!’ Translation from O’Flaherty, The Rig Veda, 260.
18 Levinas, in Totality and Infinity, develops the implications of these two views.
19 Doniger, The Laws of Manu, lvii–lviii.
20 Gian Biagio Conte notes that such a list is a rhetorical affective figure called enumeratio caotica, which consists ‘precisely in emphatic accumulation and designating such an abundance of these referents that they cannot be clearly organized by distinguishing what counts more from what counts little … by distinguishing the true from the false, the plausible from the incredible, the documented from the fanciful, the useful from the useless’, ‘The Inventory of the World’, 72. Thanks to Lorraine Daston for this citation.
21 See Doniger, ‘Echoes of the Mahahharata’. The woman who prepared milk-rice for the Buddha when he ended his long meditation after achieving enlightenment is said to have milked a thousand cows, and fed the milk to five hundred cows; then she milked those five hundred cows and fed the milk to two hundred and fifty, and so on, until she fed the milk of sixteen cows to eight, and used the milk of those eight cows to prepare the milk-rice for the Buddha. See Introduction to the Jataka 1.68; trans. Warren, Buddhism in Translation, 71–2. The Roman historian Pliny cited a similar myth, about 20,000 facts digested from 2000 volumes written by 100 authors, condensed in 36 books (Historia Naturalis, Prefatio, 17). Thanks to Lorraine Daston for this reference.