The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana (23 page)

For purifying the womb For causing pregnancy

For preventing miscarriage and other accidents

For ensuring easy labour and ready deliverance

For limiting the number of children

For thickening and beautifying the hair

For obtaining a good black colour to it

For whitening and bleaching it

For renewing it

For clearing the skin of the face from eruptions that break out and leave black spots upon it

For removing the black colour of the epidermis

For enlarging the breasts of women

For raising and hardening pendulous breasts

For giving a fragrance to the skin

For removing the evil savour of perspiration

For anointing the body after bathing

For causing a pleasant smell to the breath

Drugs and charms for the purposes of fascinating, overcoming, and subduing either men or women

Recipes for enabling a woman to attract and preserve her husband's love

Magical collyriums for winning love and friendship

Prescriptions for reducing other persons to submission

Philtre pills, and other charms

Fascinating incense, or fumigation

Magical verses which have the power of fascination

Of the one hundred and thirty recipes given, many of them are absurd, but not more perhaps than many of the recipes and prescriptions in use in Europe not so very long ago. Love-philtres, charms, and herbal remedies have been, in early days, as freely used in Europe as in Asia, and doubtless some people believe in them still in many places.

And now, one word about the author of the work, the good old sage Vatsyayana. It is much to be regretted that nothing can be discovered about his life, his belongings, and his surroundings. At the end of Part VII, he states that he wrote the work while leading the life of a religious student [probably at Benares] and while wholly engaged in the contemplation of the Deity. He must have arrived at a certain age at that time, for throughout he gives us the benefit of his experience, and of his opinions, and these bear the stamp of age rather than of youth; indeed the work could hardly have been written by a young man.

In a beautiful verse of the Vedas of the Christians it has been said of the peaceful dead, that they rest from their labours, and that their works do follow them. Yes indeed, the works of men of genius do follow them, and remain as a lasting treasure. And though there may be disputes and discussions about the immortality of the body or the soul, nobody can deny the immortality of genius, which ever remains as a bright and guiding star to the struggling humanities of succeeding ages. This work, then, which has stood the test of centuries, has placed Vatsyayana among the immortals, and on This, and on Him no better elegy or eulogy can be written than the following lines:

'So long as lips shall kiss, and eyes shall see,

So long lives This, and This gives life to Thee.'

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