Kama Sutra
Ancient pleasure manual
The Kama Sutra is an ancient Sanskrit text on erotic love and sexual behavior, composed in India sometime between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE.
Though popularly associated in the West with illustrated sexual positions, the work is primarily a guide to virtuous and gracious living, covering courtship, marriage, and the conduct of relationships.
They joked that the Kama Sutra was required reading for newlyweds.
The title combines kama (desire, pleasure) with sutra (a thread or text of teachings).
A joining or relation
- closenessState of proximity
- affectionWarm emotional attachment
- passionIntense emotional drive
- desireIntense wanting
embrace · caress · sensuality · pleasure · eroticism · seduction · courtship · foreplay
Ancient Indo-Aryan language
- treatiseFormal scholarly composition
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- aphorismsConcise memorable truths
- commentaryExplanatory remarks on events
translation · chapters · verses · editions · Burton · scripture · codex · literature
Formal union between partners
- courtshipSeeking another's romantic favor
- partnershipShared business arrangement
- wivesMarried female partners
- courtesansCompanions to powerful men
fidelity · compatibility · wooing · arrangement · household · matrimony · spouse · lovers
Cosmic moral order
- arthaMaterial wellbeing in Hinduism
- mokshaRelease from rebirth cycle
- kamaOkinawan sickle weapon
- ethicsStudy of right conduct
virtue · conduct · worldview · cosmology · Hinduism · spirituality · enlightenment · tradition
Body alignments or stances
- techniquesSkilled ways of doing
- illustrationsPictures explaining text
- imageryVivid descriptive language
- sculpturesCarved or molded artworks
carvings · depictions · figures · choreography · flexibility · tantric
connection
A joining or relation
desire · embrace · caress · sensuality · pleasure · eroticism · seduction · courtship · foreplay · touch
Sanskrit
Ancient Indo-Aryan language
- treatiseFormal scholarly composition
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- aphorismsConcise memorable truths
commentary · translation · chapters · verses · editions · Burton · scripture · codex · literature · philosophy
marriage
Formal union between partners
- courtshipSeeking another's romantic favor
- partnershipShared business arrangement
- wivesMarried female partners
courtesans · fidelity · compatibility · wooing · arrangement · household · matrimony · spouse · lovers · conduct
dharma
Cosmic moral order
ethics · virtue · conduct · worldview · cosmology · Hinduism · spirituality · enlightenment · tradition · Vedas
postures
Body alignments or stances
- techniquesSkilled ways of doing
- illustrationsPictures explaining text
- imageryVivid descriptive language
sculptures · carvings · depictions · figures · choreography · flexibility · tantric
- Sutras
- sexualitysexual orientation, sexual behavior, erotica, sexual identity, bisexual
- ancient textsscrolls, scroll, Euclid's Elements, Epic of Gilgamesh, codex
- sexual customssexual norms, sexual taboos, marriage customs, courtship, virginity
- erotic arterotic art, nude painting, nude sculpture, artistic nude, classical nude
- eroticaerotic, erotic literature, eroticism, erotica, sensuality
Kama Sutracelibacy
Abstaining from intimate relations
chastity · abstinence · chaste · asexuality · sexless
Kama Sutraasceticism
Severe self-denial practice
monasticism · renunciation · self-denial · austerity · mortification