23 Facts About Kamasutra

The Kamasutra has influenced many secondary texts that followed after the 4th-century CE, as well as the Indian arts as exemplified by the pervasive presence Kama-related reliefs and sculpture in old Hindu temples.

Kamasutra cites the work of others he calls "teachers" and "scholars", and the longer texts by Auddalaki, Babhravya, Dattaka, Suvarnanabha, Ghotakamukha, Gonardiya, Gonikaputra, Charayana, and Kuchumara.

Vatsyayana's Kamasutra is mentioned and some verses quoted in the Brihatsamhita of Varahamihira, as well as the poems of Kalidasa.

Kamasutra makes a passing mention of the fourth aim of life in some verses.

Kamasutra's 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.

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Kamasutra manuscripts have survived in many versions across the Indian subcontinent.

Kamasutra uses a mixture of prose and poetry, and the narration has the form of a dramatic fiction where two characters are called the nayaka and nayika, aided by the characters called pitamarda, vita and vidushaka.

The teachings and discussions found in the Kamasutra extensively incorporate ancient Hindu mythology and legends.

Kamasutra is a "sutra"-genre text consisting of intensely condensed, aphoristic verses.

The Kamasutra too has attracted commentaries, of which the most well known are those of 12th-century or 13th-century Yasodhara's Jayamangala in the Sanskrit language, and of Devadatta Shastri who commented on the original text as well as its commentaries in the Hindi language.

The extant translations of the Kamasutra typically incorporate these commentaries, states Danielou.

Book 3 of the Kamasutra is largely dedicated to the art of courtship with the aim of marriage.

Kamasutra has been one of the unique sources of sociological information and cultural milieu of ancient India.

Kamasutra did not translate it, but did edit it to suit the Victorian British attitudes.

The Burton edition of the Kamasutra was illegal to publish in England and the United States till 1962.

Kamasutra creatively found a way to subvert the then prevalent censorship laws of Britain under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857.

However, Burton's Kamasutra gave a unique, specific meaning to these words in the western imagination.

Similarly, while the original Kamasutra acknowledges that "women have strong privileges", Burton erased these passages and thus eroded women's agency in ancient India in the typical Orientialist manner that dehumanized the Indian culture.

Kamasutra includes English translations of two important commentaries, one by Jayamangala commentary, and a more modern commentary by Devadatta Shastri, as endnotes.

The Doniger translation and Kamasutra-related literature has both been praised and criticized.

Kamasutra's translation has the folksy, "twinkle prose", engaging style, and an original translation of the Sanskrit text.

Kamasutra makes sweeping generalizations and flippant insertions that are neither supported by the original text nor the weight of evidence in other related ancient and later Indian literature such as from the Bengal Renaissance movement – one of the scholarly specialty of Narasingha Sil.

Kamasutra has been a popular reference to erotic ancient literature.