Talking about Kama, loosely defined as “the sexual desire”, today is taboo rather than blasphemy and sacrilege, particularly for India’s middle class. Nonetheless, I have been talking and writing on the nuances of Kama, love and intimacy for a decade and a half now. In three pieces, I addressed the elephant in the room by taking up the subject of love, companionship, intimacy, sex, marriage and divorce.
Nonetheless, my discourses and writings thus far have been restricted to Kama, the desire for its diminishing altogether absence or excessive presence in a specific subset of humans, accursed with serious mental disorders (Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia) and how the subject matter of love, companionship, intimacy and sex are suppressed for such people, in a society where about these, even for normative population, is discouraged and frowned upon.
For the uninitiated, in most mental disorders, in the depressive phase substantially decreased sexual energy or even sexual dysfunctioning is the norm. Contrarily, in a substantially large cohort of those suffering from bipolar disorder, during the manic phase, the problem is reversed. They are often gripped with hypersexuality, extremely high libido, excessive sexual desire and often unwarranted sexual indiscretion.
Ideation of an Idea
But this insertion is different. It is my attempt at stitching together an abridged biography of Kama, the most elemental of human desire. The idea of the piece germinated on October 29, when, in my conversation with accomplished Indian author Gurcharan Das about his memoir ‘Another Sorts of Freedom’, he briefly sidestepped and talked about his previous book ‘Kama-the Riddle of Desire’. I hopped on to the subject for two existential reasons-
One, Kama (love, sex and physical desire) has harried my ‘three pounds’ manic-depressive mind ever since adolescence. And it has frustrated and tormented me, lately after, the onslaught of polypharmacy of psychotropic drugs, a cocktail of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), mood stabilizers (lithium and valproate) and anti-psychotics, by my six treating psychiatrists made me an unsuspecting, unfortunate and unwarranted victim of the erectile dysfunctioning a decade back.
Two, the subject matter of Kama has fascinated me since I first read Richard Francis Burton’s English translation of ‘The Kama Sutra’, written by Vatsyayana (first published in 1883). Wrongly depicted as the ‘Indian Sex Book’ in the West, I have found ‘Kama Sutra’, believed to have been written originally in Sanskrit between 400 BCE and 300 BCE during the golden period of the Gupta dynasty, a riveting and absorbing philosophical discourse that deals magnificently with the body-fabric of human eroticism, sexuality, and emotional fulfillment.
Debunking the Myth
Contrary to the common conception of Kama, as enunciated in the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and Upanishads, Kama is the third of purushartha (goals), four tenets of the fundamental pursuits of human life: Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Unmistakably, these four aims of life are pillars of a balanced and fulfilling existence, guiding individuals toward a purposeful life journey. To put it succinctly, Dharma, the divine duty, drives in humans the desires of Artha and Kama, culminating eventually in the quest of Moksha, mystical emancipation to many and a journey of spiritual self-realisation to me.
Kamadeva – The God of Desire and Love
In Greek mythology, Eros is the Greek god of love. Romans have Cupid. Kamadeva, first mentioned in the ancient Hindu scripture Rigveda, is the Hindu god of love, desire and pleasure, often portrayed alongside Rati, his consort. His early description is ‘one who rides a parrot and carries a bow made of sugarcane stalk, strung with a line of humming bees’. He shoots arrows tipped with flowers, considered akin to shafts of desire, capable of making any target fall in love.
Atharva Veda describes Kamadeva as the one “born at first, him neither gods nor fathers equalled and the one wielding universe’s creative power”. Puranas describe Kamadeva as the “mind-born son (Manasa Putra) of Brahma, the creator of the universe.”
However, the most talked about story about Kamadeva is that once, Lord Shiva was in deep meditation, totally unaware of his surroundings and the happenings of the world. This was a time when Taraka, the demon, was causing immense harm to the Devas. The story is that Taraka could not be defeated by anyone other than by a son born to Shiva. Alarmed, Indra desperately wanting to kindle the feeling of love in Shiva’s heart (so that he could unite with Parvati and that union could produce an issue, who would then kill the demon) directed Kamadeva to generate tender love in the heart of the meditating Shiva. Kamadeva approached Shiva, who was lost in contemplation and shot his irresistible flower arrow at him. The disturbed Shiva was awakened, and in his anger, opened his third eye and the flame that emerged from there reduced Kamadeva to ashes.
Kamadeva paid a price with his life but achieved what Indra wanted. His arrows aroused a strong desire in Lord Shiva, who then united with Parvati, for the good of the universe. Consequently, Lord Karthikeya was born to them, who then went on to kill Taraka and other demons. With Kamadeva reduced to ashes, Rati, his cohort, pleaded with Shiva to show mercy as Kamadeva had acted at the behest of Devas, to bring peace and tranquility to the world. Shiva indeed brought Kama back to life albeit with the condition that he would be Ananga or form-less (without body) and visible only to Rati.
Kamadeva is also referred to by many other names, which include Manmatha, one who agitates or churns the heart; Ananga, one who is non-physical or formless; and Kama, the embodiment of desire. The only unanimity in the literature about Kamadeva is the absence of unanimity. As per Taittiriya Brahmana, he is the son of Dharma, (personification of the universal principle of justice) and Shraddha, the goddess of faith. In Harivamsa, he is the son of Lakshmi, the goddess of material wealth. According to other sources including Skanda puranas, Kamadeva is a brother of Prasuti; together they are the children of Shatarupa, a creation of Brahma. But all sources concur his consort and wife were Ratī, a daughter of Prasuti and Daksha (another son/creation of Brahmā) who herself personified sensual pleasure. His second wife is Priti, the personification of affection, with whom he has a daughter Trishna or “thirst”, representative of insatiable desire. According to some beliefs, Kāmadeva was also later born as Pradyumna, the son of Krishna and Rukminī.
While the tales and literature about Kamadeva are truly varied, colourful and contradictory, his visual representations are few and far between. As someone to whom Hyderabad has been a second home, in my frequent visits to the famous Salarjung museum, I am often mesmerised and enthralled, spending hours devouring the magnificent wood-carved sculpture of Kamadeva and Rati.
Kama – The Most Elemental of Human Desire Defined
The word ‘Kama’ is a masculine noun referring to ‘desire’ in both the Sanskrit and Pali languages. The first appearance of Kama in a theological sense appears in the Rig Veda and in decidedly asexual terms. The very first word of hymn १०.१२९.०४, Rig Veda is Kamastdagre and the full hymn is translated below-
“In the beginning Desire came over (surrounded, enclosed, emerged). Desire was the first seed of mind. (no humans or human mind. Desire and mind are coeval with creation. This mind is the universal mind). A seed sprouts and produces more seeds. Cycle of continuity is established. But the seed was born out of emptiness”. (१०.१२९.०४)
German Sanskrit scholar Max Muller has the following to say about the creation of the first seed in his translation of the verse १०.१२९–
“Then seeds were sown, and mighty power arose –
Nature below, and Power and Will above.
Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here,
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang? –
The gods themselves came later into being. –
Who knows from whence this great creation sprang? –
He from whom all this great creation came.
Whether his will created or was mute,
The Most High seer that is in highest heaven,
He knows it, — or perchance e’en He knows not.”
Here, Kama depicts the first movement of the ineffable absolute toward form, the first seed, the first desire that necessitated consciousness. With the arrival of the Atharva Veda, Kama is elevated to the status of something resembling a creator god and is afforded supremacy over the other deities (Atharva Veda 9.2.19-20, 25). In Atharva Veda 19.52.1, we also find a mantra stating, “Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire the primal seed and germ of Spirit”. As per Manu Smrti 2.2, it is not right to be absorbed in desires—“But there is in this world, no absolute absence of desire; for the study of the Vedas itself is prompted by desire, as also every act prescribed in the Veda.” Also, in Manu Smṛti 2.2-5, there is a discourse on how Kāma is at the root of all actions and how without it, the world cannot function.
In Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 37 reads as shri bhagavan uvacha “kāma eṣha krodha eṣha rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ mahāśhano mahā-pāpmā viddhyenam iha vairiṇam”. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in his translation and interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, translates the verse as follows-
“The Blessed Lord said: This is craving, this is wrath, born of the mode of passion, all-devouring and most sinful. Know this to be the enemy here”!
Indubitably, blessed Lord Krishna identifies (craving) loosely definable as “lust” for worldly enjoyment as the cause of sin, sitting within us. The mode of passion deludes the soul into believing that worldly objects will give satisfaction, and therefore humans create a desire in us to acquire them and so. A desire satisfied leads us to greed (heightened desire) and if not, to anger (disgruntled and disenchanted desire). Whether it is carving (desire), greed or anger, the pathway of all three leads us to sin.
In Bhagavad Gita’s verse 7.11, Lord Krishna says, “O best of the Bharatas, in strong persons, I am their strength devoid of desire and passion. I am sexual activity not conflicting with virtue or scriptural injunctions.”
Thus, though as per popular conception today, overtones of Kama are sensual and sexual, in Hinduism, Kama has a variety of meanings ranging from sexual to aesthetic enjoyment.
A Nation Starved Today of Authentic Sex Information and Education
Make no mistake, India is perhaps the only civilisation in the world to elevate Kāma – desire and pleasure – to a goal of life. Also, Hinduism is the only religion where Shiva lingam is worshipped. Lingam here is the communion of the eternal consciousness and dynamic power of the Shakti, the source of all actions and changes. It is also the symbol for the creation of the universe through the combination of the active energy of Lord Shiva and his Shakti.
I will decode the Kama Sutra, India’s gift to the world and Indian temples, sculptures, and art of sensuality and sensuality, but before that, a contextual detour is in order.
In contemporary, conservative India, except in the metropolitan cities, that too in the upper echelon of society, the dominant paradigm in both urban and rural parts of the nation is one of completely sex-segregated upbringing and preferred education. State and district headquarters and mufassil towns abound in segregated boys’ and girls’ schools, even colleges. Sexual desire is considered bad, undesirable and even sinful. The stuff-shirt middle class often considers boys and girls even touching each other sacrilege. Sex-appropriate education is conspicuous by the complete absence and authentic information about sex is just not available. The knowledge about dos and don’ts about sex and proper sexual behaviour is nonexistent and the prudish Indian society considers sex talk anti-religion and for some, it also is against the basic tenet of Hinduism.
The sex segregation, absence of free will union and total lack of sex education that defines India, has many unwanted consequences. Three are described below-
One, as per the latest National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, in the year 2021, India recorded the highest number of crimes against women. Two, disputing the findings of the surveys is our right, but truth beckons, India, the world’s fastest-growing economy and global space superpower, as per a 2018 Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of 548 experts on women’s issues, was declared the world’s most dangerous country for women, ahead of Afghanistan, Syria and USA. Three, as per Sun newspaper findings in 2022, India was amongst the chart-buster nations in viewing pornography, our rank was marginally behind Pakistan, Egypt, Vietnam, Iran and Morocco.
This does not bode well for the Indian nation. Indian boys and girls, young men and women, are in dire need of authentic sex information, education and guidance. It is here that the Kama Sutra and India’s temples of love, sensuality and sex tick the right boxes.
Decoding Kama Sutra
It is the ancient Bharat Varsha that during the golden period of the Guptas gave to the world the sacred religious, philosophical and practical treatise of love, desire, sensuality and sexuality written by the religious sage Vatsyayana. I first read the English translation of Vatsyayana’s ‘Kama Sutra’ or ‘Aphorisms on Love’ in 1974, but my first introduction of an abridged Hindi edition of sex asanas, was in 1969 when a wealthy friend of mine brought the abridged version called Koka Shastra.
The ‘Kama Sutra’ or ‘Aphorisms on Love’ by Vatsyayana, contains about 1,250 shlokas or verses, which are divided into parts, chapters and paragraphs. The whole book consists of seven parts, 36 chapters, and 64 paragraphs. Not much is known about Vatsyayana, who at the end of ‘Kama Sutra’ writes the following-
“After reading and considering the works of Babhravya and other ancient authors and thinking over the meaning of the rules given by them, this treatise was composed, according to the precepts of the Holy Writ, for the benefit of the world, by Vatsyayana, while leading the life of a religious student (probably at Benares) and wholly engaged in the contemplation of the Deity. This work is not to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires. A person acquainted with the true principles of this science, who preserves his Dharma (virtue or religious merit), his Artha (worldly wealth) and his Kama (pleasure or sensual gratification), and who has regard to the customs of the people, is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses. In short, an intelligent and knowing person, attending to Dharma and Artha and also to Kama, without becoming the slave of his passions, will obtain success in everything that he may do.”
At the outset, I dispel the common conception of Kama Sutra that it is about different positions of intercourse. Only about 20 per cent of the book –one chapter to be exact– deals with the topic of sexual positions. The rest of the books deal with the topics of desire, lust, seduction and the philosophy of love.
Kama Sutra consists of seven parts – Part I (contents of the book) with five chapters, Part II (on sexual union) with ten chapters, Part III (about the acquisition of wife) with five chapters with fifth about the forms of marriage), Part IV (about a wife) with two chapters, Part V (about the wives of other people) with six chapters, Part VI (about courtesans) with six chapters and Part VII (on the means of attracting others to one’s self) with two chapters.
There is a misconception that the Kama Sutra is for the benefit of or to be read only by men. In Chapter 3 ‘Arts and Sciences to be Studied’, Vatsyayana writes that 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. He further says that even young girls should study this Kama Sutra along with its arts and sciences before marriage, and after marriage, they should continue to do so with the consent of their husbands. He further writes that a female, therefore, should learn the Kama Shastra, or at least a part of it, by studying its practice from some confidential friend. She should study alone in private the 64 practices that form a part of the Kama Shastra- the practices begin with singing, playing musical instruments, and dancing and end with the art of knowing the character of a man from his features, knowledge of scanning or constructing verses, arithmetical recreations, making artificial flowers and making figures and images in clay.
He adds further that a public woman, endowed with a good disposition, beauty and other winning qualities, and also versed in the above (sixty-four arts, obtains the name of a Ganika, or public woman of high quality) and receives a seat of honour in an assemblage of men. She is, moreover, always respected by the king, and praised by learned men, and her favour being sought for by all, she becomes an object of universal regard.
Truth is, Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra is rightly considered a philosophical discourse, a treatise on men and women, their mutual relationship, and their connection with each other. It is a work of art that must be studied by all, both old and young; the former will find in it real truths, gathered by experience, and already tested by themselves, while the latter will derive the great advantage of learning things, which some perhaps may otherwise never learn at all, or which they may only learn when it is too late to profit by the learning.
It is also a treatise worth reading by students of humanities and social sciences, and as is written at the end of the book must be read above all by the student of those early ideas, which have gradually filtered down through the sands of time, and which seem to prove that the human nature of today is much the same as the human nature of long ago. Make no mistake, the Kama Sutra has become a classic. It is full of simplicity and truth, has stood the test of time, and still stands out as clear and true as when it was first written in the third century BC.
Sacred Kama Depiction in Indian Temples, Paintings and Sculpture
More and more I dwell deeper into India’s past, I decipher that in ancient India, sex, sensuality and sexuality were integral to Indian culture. Polygamy and polyamory were common, especially in the upper classes. Nudity in arts and crafts was plentiful, and sex though a private affair, both partners were expected to pleasure each other in the act.
What I have found is that before the 12th century, with regard to sensuality and sexuality, India was more liberal and tolerant. In an earlier timeline, I believe sex education was part of formal education and as we have seen above, it was here that Kama Sutra was written which has become a classic globally. It is in recent centuries that the country has become more conservative, particularly under the influence of Puritanism of Islamic dynasties, British influences and the country’s own Puritans. Christianity and Islam have seen the human body as essentially sinful, lustful and shameful, the tainted vehicle of the sinful mind to be disciplined. India’s temples and sculptures narrate a vibrant different story where sensuality and sexuality were a beauty depicted in sculptures and paintings. Carving at Khajuraho depict diverse sexual expressions of different human beings, and so do in case of many others including but not limited to Sun Temple, Konark; Sun Temple Modhera; Lingaraj Temple, Bhubhaneshwar; Virupaksha Temple, Hampi; Markandeshwar Temple, Maharashtra; Ranakpur Jain Temple, Rajasthan; Bhoramdeo Temple, Chhattisgarh and many others.
The author is Multidisciplinary Thought Leader with Action Bias and India Based International Impact Consultant. He is a keen watcher of changing national scenarios. He works as President Advisory Services of Consulting Company BARSYL. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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