Vātsyāyana Quotes

A man practicing Dharma, Artha and Kama enjoys happiness both in this world and in the world to come.

His travel with his father helped him to gather information about the sexual mores of different people of different parts of India and neighboring countries.

A man should gather from the actions of the woman of what disposition she is, and in what way she likes to be enjoyed. A man during her monthly courses, a woman who has been lately confined, and fat woman should not be made to act the part of man.

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.

Kama is also learnt from the Kama Sutra (aphorisms on [[love) and from the practice of citizens.

Karma is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama.

In order to convince the narrator that woman enjoys sex more intensely than man Vatsayana offers a few mythological examples. For example, Lord Shiva "on insulting a procession of barren women was cursed by the women with a change of sex. Later transformed back into his original state but now familiar with both men and women he is said to have dictated Dattaka’s text to that great teacher of erotics.

Whatever things may be done by one of the lovers to the other, the same should be returned by the other, if she strikes him he should also strike her in return.

Though a man loves a girl ever so much, he never succeeds in winning her without a great deal of talking.

When all three viz., Dharma, Artha, and Kama together, the former is better than the one which follows it, i.e., Dharma is better than Artha, and Artha is better than Kama. But Artha should be always practiced by the king, for the livelihood of men is to be obtained from it only. Again, Kama being the occupation of public women, they should prefer to the other two, and these are exceptions to the general rule.

No details of Vatsayana is known except the fact that he bore the surname Mallanaga... He was a law giver like Manu or Kauitilya and was anxious to reconcile Dharma, Artha and Kama the three recognized ends of life by emphasizing their equal importance and harmonious blending, and hence it was not possible for him to reduce his work to gross sexual level as did his successors or imitators in the subsequent erotic writing.

Women are hardly ever known in their true light, though they may love men, or become indifferent towards them, may give them delight, or abandon them, or may extract from them all the wealth that they possess.

The man who is ingenious and wise, who is accompanied by a friend, and who knows the intentions of others, as also the proper time and place for doing everything, can gain over, very easily, even a woman who is very hard to be obtained.

...the semen of the female falls in the same way as that of the male.

...variety is necessary in love, so love is to be produced by means of variety.