The Great Debate about Kamasutra
Kamasutra, an ancient guide to erotic lovemaking or rather to a sexual code of conduct. One could tell that it is an all in all Encyclopedia about how to woo and attract the opposite gender, how to win over the lover, and the electric dynamics between two people. In a nutshell, it’s a book educating man how to make a woman happy.
The book Kamasutra, written centuries back is educating man on how sensitive it is to fulfill woman’s needs. But on the contrary, we, people of the so-called, modern era are embarrassed to talk about sex, let alone erotic sex and pleasure. Talk about modernization. Sure, humans have evolved but not our thoughts. Even now there are many who, associate Kamasutra with porn movie names, cracking jokes, and whatnot.
But is that all? Does the book talk only about sex positions and pleasure?
No, definitely not. What most people are referring to is coition and sex postures, which barely cover a few chapters in the entire book. Whereas there is the rest, which is more or less absurd and talks about unethical and immoral practices against women.
No woman would be able to read those chapters and feel unbothered. In fact, it would be a miracle if they don’t tear the book down.
So, there are two contradicting views. This brings us to the great debate about Kamasutra, is it about pleasuring women or oppressing them?
The Unknown Hidden in History
There are chapters in Kamasutra where women are regarded as “objects”, or mere slaves, or “dhasi’s” whose whole responsibility is either to be a good wife and take care of children and do her duties or just be a play toy for men. In fact, there are chapters that explain how to have sex with a woman before marriage, how to seduce another man’s wife, and that preaches woman about her duties as a prostitute. It goes to an extreme where it tells men of higher caste shouldn’t even touch the women from lower caste as it would make them dirty. How obscene could it get?
How can a man forcefully having sex with a woman to just marry her any different from rape? It’s definietly safe to say that the book is not exactly “rape free”.
Kamasutra, Written by Men for Men
Maybe our current society is a result of our ancestors reading such books. Where else would they have gotten the idea that women are inferior to them and have so and so duties to fulfill? And men having so and so looks and status is considered desirable while others are not. Someone should have sown the seeds, right? For sure people have read this book at some point to have imbibed such values in our society.
Everything it addresses is in favor of men. It doesn’t say anything about woman’s sexual age, or how women should pursue pleasure, it rather advocates that men can betray, take multiple wives, and even commit adultery.
How could a book that has neglected every act of “dharma” and over-glorified “Kama” and encouraged one to indulge in pleasure whenever he deems fit without a reason and woman’s consent, categorized women based on social and caste hierarchy and exaggerated violet sex, be the same book to talk about homosexual people and their relationships.
The text itself is contradicting its own points. It speaks about the code of sexual conduct while defying the same with its limitations. Thus, we could say that the book is not exactly for women as it has an over-the-top, and fair share of negatives with little to no good spread across the text. It’s all about a human’s perspective in the end as we can’t ignore the patriarchal view just because it doesn’t obsess with Kama for procreation.
One more heads up, the sculptures of Kamasutra can be found on a temple in Khajuraho, India.
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