When you hear the words “Kama Sutra,” what comes to mind?
If it has something to do with acrobatic sex positions, you wouldn’t be the only one.
What is the Kama Sutra?
The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian treatise on living a pleasurable life.
“It’s a book about how to live life and appreciate the finer things.”
The wordkamatranslates to “love, desire, and pleasure,” according to Srinivasan.
Asutrais a specific key in of Indian literature, typically written in aphorisms and meant to be instructive.
“It’s very much about elegance.
The history of Kama Sutra.
However, the book is actually thought to be acollection of previous texts1that the author simply stitched together.
And according to Anand, some believe that much of the book may have actually been written by women.
He says that in his introduction,” Anand explains.
Other stories suggest courtesans of the time paid for the book to be written, she says.
According to Anand, there have been hundreds if not thousands of versions of the Kama Sutra.
Notable teachings.
“It says that if sex is to be had between two people, it should always be joyous.
It should be fabulous.
It should be totally mutually pleasurable; otherwise, it’s not worth it.”
Prioritize women’s pleasure during sex.
The Kama Sutra places a lot of emphasis on women’s pleasure, says Anand.
You’ve got to give her that time.
You’ve got to kiss her like this.
You’ve got to do this to her.
So it’s all about that," she explains.
“If it takes her three days to come to arousal, you spend those three days.”
Other versions comparedlovemakingto the skills of a warrior, drawing connections between sex positions and battle positions.
More broadly, Anand says a mutually happy relationship was seen as the bedrock of a healthy society.
And if the relationship was stable, society would be stable.
And if society was stable, the kingdom would be stable," she explains.
“So the stability of the kingdom depended on the pleasure of the woman.”
Penetration isn’t everything.
The Kama Sutra makes it clear that penetration isn’t the be-all and end-all of good sex.
“That’s not what pleasure is all about.
It’s not all about penetration,” says Anand.
“Sex is not just that one thing.”
Anand notes that manynon-penetrative activitiesare described in the Kama Sutra as being potential sources of pleasure.
“I think sex, for most people, is about that penetration, isn’t it?
And for most women, that doesn’t even count as pleasurable.
There’s nothing exciting about that.
It’s like the least exciting thing,” Anand says.
“There are so many other things to the sexual act that should be explored.”
Size matters.
When it comes to penis-in-vagina intercourse, the Kama Sutra teaches that size does, in fact, matter.
So the idea is that the organs should be the same size."
Those are the sex positions described in the Kama Sutra.
She should pull her legs up a little bit.
“That’s what [the sex positions] were originally meant for.”
Pleasure can be derived from many parts of life.
“It teaches us to derive pleasure from inherently nonsexual activities.”
Kama Sutra sex positions.
The penetrator kneels with their thighs on each side of their partner and thrusts.
The other partner then penetrates them from behind, massaging and fondling their back at the same time.
(This position can potentially be dangerous, so be very careful if you do try it.
Consider modifying it to make it easier on both parties.)
The takeaway.
But importantly, our experts stress that the book is about so much more than just sex positions.
