On the Kamasutra

Author(s): Wendy Doniger

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Daedalus, Vol. 131, No. 2, On Intellectual Property (Spring, 2002), pp. 126-129
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027767 .
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 over a century ago, in 1893. A new trans
lation that I have been preparing, with
my colleague Sudhir Kakar, for Oxford
World Classics, reveals for the first time
the text's surprisingly modern ideas
Wendy Doniger about gender and unexpectedly subtle
stereotypes of feminine and masculine
on the natures. It also reveals relatively liberal
Kamasutra attitudes to women's education and sex
ual freedom, and far more complex
views on homosexual acts than are sug

gested by other texts of this period. And

itmakes us see
just what Burton got
wrong, and ask why he got itwrong.
Most Americans and Europeans today
think that the Kamasutra is just about
sexual positions. Reviews of books deal
ing with the Kamasutra in recent years
The Kamasutra, which many people re have had titles like "Assume the Posi
as the textbook for tion" and "Position Impossible." In In
gard paradigmatic
sex, was composed in North dia, Kamasutra is the name of a condom ;
India, prob
in America, one website offered The Ka
ably in the third century CE., in San
masutra of Pooh, posing stuffed animals
skrit, the literary language of ancient
India. There is nothing like it in compromising positions on
remotely (Piglet
even now, and for its time itwas aston Pooh, Pooh mounting and so
Eeyore,
ishingly sophisticated; itwas already forth). The part of the Kamasutra de
well known in India at a time when the scribing the positions may have been the
were still in best-thumbed passage in previous ages
Europeans swinging trees,
of sexual censorship, but nowadays,
culturally (and sexually) speaking.
The Kamasutra is known in English when sexually explicit novels, films, and
almost instruction manuals are available every
entirely through the translation
where, that part is the least useful.
by Sir Richard Francis Burton, published
The real Kamasutra, however, is not the
sort of book to be read in bed when
Wendy Doniger isMircea Eliade Distinguished drinking heavily, let alone held in one
Service Professor of theHistory of Religions at the hand in order to keep the other hand
Divinity School of theUniversity of Chicago. Her free. The product of a culture quite re
research and teaching interests revolve around two mote from our own, it is in fact a book
basic areas, Hinduism and mythology. The author about the art of living:about a
finding
of numerous books, includingmost recently "The partner, maintaining power in a mar
Bedtrick: Tales of Sex andMasquerade," she is as or
riage, committing adultery, living
-
currentlyworking on a translation of the lastfour with a courtesan, using drugs and also
books the "Mahabharata"; a novel, "Horses
of about the positions in sexual inter
for Lovers, Dogs for Husbands" ; and a book course. In the Burton translation, read
about infinite regress and self-imitation inmythol now in the shadow of Edward Said, it
ogy. Doniger has been a Fellow of theAmerican seems to be about Orientalism. Read in
since
Academy 1989. the wake of Michel Foucault, it seems to

126 D dalus 2002

Spring
be about power, and in the wake of Ju der. Vatsyayana that peo The
acknowledges
Kamasutra
dith Butler, about the control of women reverse :
ple do, sometimes, gender roles
and the denial of homosexuals. I do not "Their passion and a particular tech
think these are its primary concerns, but nique may sometimes lead them even to
it certainly is about gender, and to that exchange roles ;but not for very long. In
extent Said, Foucault, and Butler are es the end, the natural roles are reestab
sential companions for us as we read it lished" [2.7.23]. This switch of "natural

today. talents" is precisely what happens when

We can learn a lot about conventional the woman is on top [2.8.6], a position
Indian ideas of gender from the Kamasu that most Sanskrit texts refer to as the
tra. The author, Vatsyayana, describes "perverse"
or "reversed" or
"topsy-tur

typically female behavior: "dress, chat vy" position (viparitam). Vatsyayana

never uses this term,
ter, grace, emotions, delicacy, timidity, referring to the
innocence, frailty, andbashfulness." The woman-on-top only with the
position
closest he has to a word for our "gender" verb "to play the man's
role" (purushayit
is "natural talent" or "glory" (tejas) [at va). Even while she is playing that role,
2.7.22] : "Aman's natural talent is his however, she mimes her own conven

roughness and ferocity; awoman's is her tional gender behavior [2.8.6] : "And, at
lack of power and her suffering, self the same time, she indicates that she is
denial, and weakness." embarrassed and exhausted and wishes
What happens when people deviate
to
stop."
from these norms? The Kamasutra de A thirteenth-century commentary (by
com
parts from conventional contemporary Yashodhara) spells out the gender
Hindu views in significant ways. : "She now does these acts
plications
First, it has what appears to be a third against the current of her own natural

gender: "There are two sorts of third na talent, demonstrating her ferocity. And
ture, in the form of a woman and in the so, in order to express the woman's nat
form of aman. The one in the form of a ural talent, even though she is not em
woman imitates a woman's dress, chat barrassed, nor exhausted, and does not
ter, grace, emotions, delicacy, timidity, wish to stop, she indicates that she is
innocence, frailty, andbashfulness. The embarrassed and exhausted and wishes
one in the form of aman, however, con to stop." Now, since Vatsyayana insists
ceals her desire when she wants aman [at 2.8. 39] that the woman "unveils her
and makes her living as amasseur" own her pas
feelings completely/when
- sion drives her to get on top," the feel
[2.9.1 6 ].Though the Kamasutra quickly
woman when
dismisses the cross-dressing male, with ings of the she plays the
his stereotypical female gender behavior, man's role seem to be both male and
it discusses the fellatio technique of the female. Or, rather, when she acts like a
closeted man of the third nature in con man, she pretends to be aman and then
siderable sensual detail, in the longest pretends to be a woman.
consecutive passage in the text describ In this way, Vatsyayana acknowledges
a act, and with what might a woman's active agency and challenges
ing physical
even be called gusto -
[2.9.6 24]. her stereotyped gender role. He is also a
In addition, the book's long passage strong advocate for women's sexual
about the woman playing the role of
a pleasure and for the importance of
man while love on top of aman ensuring that she has her orgasm before
making
- -
blurs conventional Indian ideas of gen he has his [2.1.10 23 6, 30 ].He even

D dalus 2002 127

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Note by knew about the G-spot: "When he is His translation remains precious, like
Wendy inside and her as a monu
moving her, eyes roll Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat,
Doniger
ment of
when she feels him in certain spots, he English literature, though not
presses her in just those spots" [2.8.16]. much closer to Vatsyayana than Fitzger
The commentator clarifies the passage : ald was to Omar Khayyam. For the San
"When she feels him moving in a certain skrit text simply does not say what Bur
spot inside her, the pleasure of that ton says it says.
touch makes her eyes whirl around in a In general, Burton gets the gender
circle_There is some argument about wrong. For instance, at 4.1.19 - 21 Sudhir
this. Some people say that, when the Kakar and I have translated the text like
man is inside her, whatever this:
stroking
woman
place the looks at, either specifi
or that is the place where Mildly offended by the man's infidelities,
cally vaguely, she does not accuse him too much, but she
he should press her."
scolds him with abusive language when he
In his translation of this passage, Sir
is alone or friends. She does not,
a among
Richard Burton makes basic mistake
however, use worked with
that plagues his entire translation : love-sorcery
when
roots, for, Gonardiya de
the text puzzles him, as it often puzzles "says, "Nothing

all who read it in Sanskrit, he translates stroys trust like that.

the thirteenth-century commentary and The Burton translation here reads :

presents it as the text. In this passage, he In the event of any misconduct on the part
also gets the commentary wrong :
of her husband, she should not blame him
"While aman is doing to the woman
a little dis
what he likes best during congress, he excessively, though she be
pleased. She should not use abusive lan
should always make a point of pressing
those parts of her body on which she guage towards him, but rebuke him with
turns her eyes." There is nothing about conciliatory words, whether he be in the
of friends or alone. Moreover,
company
what "he" likes either in the text or in
she should not be a scold, for, says Gonar
the commentary; this is Burton's fanta
diya, "there is no cause of dislike on the
sy. a husband so
of as this charac
part great
In fact, Burton's translation distorts
teristic in a wife."
issues His main con
gender throughout.
tribution was the courage and determi Notice how Burton has watered down
nation to publish the work at all ;he was the passage, padded it, and made it al
the Larry Flynt of his day. To get around most twice as long as our more direct
the censorship laws, Burton set up an translation. He mistranslates the word
imaginary publishing house, The Kama for "love-sorcery worked with roots"
Shastra Society of London and Benares, (mulakarika), which he " renders as "she
with printers said to be in Benares or should not be a scold. His use of the
Cosmopoli. Even though itwas not for English word "misconduct" is not so
mally published in England and the much amistranslation as a serious error
United States until 1962, the Burton of judgment, for the word in question
Kamasutra soon became one of the most does have the
(apacara) general meaning
pirated books in the English language, of "misconduct," but in an erotic con
constantly reprinted, often with a new text it usually takes on the more specific
new edition, some
preface to justify the meaning of "infidelity," a choice that is
times without attribution to Burton.
any supported both by the remedy that the

128 D dalus Spring 2002

 - The
text suggests (and rejects) love-magic lish equivalent anthropologized sex, dis
- tanced it, made it safe for English read
Kamasutra
and by the commentator's gloss (apa
radhd). But the most serious problem ers or to
by assuring them, pretending
with Burton's translation is his use of assure them, that the text was not about
the word "not," which negates the wife's real sexual organs, their sexual organs,
to use abusive but merely about the appendages of
right language against her
husband, a denial only some strange, dark people, far away, who have
straying
what qualified by the added phrase, Ungarns and yonis instead of the naughty
"rebuke him with conciliatory words." bits that we have. This move dodged
(Was this an innocent error or does it "the smell of obscenity" through the
reflect a sexist bias ?We cannot know.) same that allowed National Geo
logic
Most unfortunately, Burton adroitly graphic to depict the bare breasts of black
women re
managed to escape the smell of obsceni African long before it became
ty by using the Hindu terms for the sexu spectable to show white women's
al organs, yoni and Ungarn, throughout. breasts in Playboy. It enabled the authors
This decision was problematic in several to pretend that the book was not ob
ways. First of all, these terms do not rep scene because itwas about India, when
was about sex, and
resent Vatsyayana's text, which only they really thought it
rarely uses the word Ungarn, and never knew that English readers would think
uses several so too.
yoni. Instead, Vatsyayana
different words, primarily gender-neu In fact, the Burton translation ismost
tral terms (jaghana) that can be translat accurate in the sections that deal with
ed as "pelvis," or "genitals," or "be the sexual positions, the topic for which
tween the legs," or other terms (such the book became famous. Was this be
"the instrument") cause this was what Burton cared about
asyantra orsadhana,
that are neither obscene nor anatomical most, or worked on most
carefully? Or
In some places, he circum was it because sex is easier to under
ly precise.
vents, by indirection or the stand, being universal, than the cultural
implication,
need to employ any specific word at all. information that is specific to India?
Where Vatsyayana does use Ungarn [at Whatever the answer, the Kamasutra
the context com deserves its classic status, not just be
2.1.1], suggests, and the
mentator affirms, that it is [like jaghana] cause it is about essential, unchangeable
-
gender-neutral, meant to apply to both human attributes lust, love, shyness,
-
men and women.
rejection, seduction, manipulation but
More significantly, Burton's decision also because we learn from it deeply inti
to use yoni and Ungarn had Orientalist im mate things about a culture that could
most as a
plications for English readers. The well be described long ago and in
use of a Sanskrit term in place of an Eng galaxy far away.

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