This book is packed with beautiful illustrations. They cover every embrace, every kiss, and every acrobatic exotica in the Kama Sutra catalog. The pictures go beyond the actual text, in illustrations of groups and in groups of illustrations.
Some depictions are stone carvings from the temples at Konarak, other are more recent carvings in wood or ivory. Drawings and paintings seem to cover every historical style the sub-continent has seen since the 18th century, from stylized cartoons to realism. Color, where appropriate is vivid and well-printed. The illustrations capture many times, people, fashions, practices, and styles of dress. Where necessary, foldouts show larger views so you can appreciate the original's detail. With just a bit more organization and care with the attributions, the illustrations alone could form a serious historical document.
The only drawback to this beautiful book is the Kama Sutra - it's just not there, at least not in complete and coherent form. There are extracts, in Sanskrit, a Romanized form of the Sanskrit phonetics, in a modern translation, and in Burton's Victorian rendering. Maybe the whole Vatsyayana text is there, but it's pretty well chopped up and mixed with extensive commentary. This is about the Kama Sutra, but not a straight translation of the book.
Still, the pictures are worth it. This is a gorgeous book.
//wiredweird
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Reviews with images
Got this when I was 20 or 21
I remember buying this book here on Amazon a few years ago (I was looking for an introduction to the real Kama Sutra text).This is a huge and very high-quality coffee table / art book. Generous full-color, beautiful illustrations throughout (enhanced by the size of the book's pages), and high-quality print.This is a book that would appeal to anyone with an interest in eroticism (not pornography), or to anyone who'd like to "open their minds" to the distinction between what is erotic and pornographic.The book features excerpts from the Kama Sutra. It was from this book that I directly learned how the actual/ancient Kama Sutra was not a sex manual (as it's taken to be in Westernized cultures), but as something psychological to enhance a person's personal/spiritual life.Now I have to go look for this great book once again that's in my bedroom on the shelf (alongside Anais Nin and DH Lawrence)!* * *UPDATE: These are the opening lines I remember that made an impression on me (and still do)--"Decency, reality, and love;Personal views and public opinion--One who knows the Kama Sutra sees through all such things,And is not programmed by one's appetites."(Kama Sutra 7.2.51) / Page 21 of this book
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2012
I remember buying this book here on Amazon a few years ago (I was looking for an introduction to the real Kama Sutra text).
This is a huge and very high-quality coffee table / art book. Generous full-color, beautiful illustrations throughout (enhanced by the size of the book's pages), and high-quality print.
This is a book that would appeal to anyone with an interest in eroticism (not pornography), or to anyone who'd like to "open their minds" to the distinction between what is erotic and pornographic.
The book features excerpts from the Kama Sutra. It was from this book that I directly learned how the actual/ancient Kama Sutra was not a sex manual (as it's taken to be in Westernized cultures), but as something psychological to enhance a person's personal/spiritual life.
Now I have to go look for this great book once again that's in my bedroom on the shelf (alongside Anais Nin and DH Lawrence)!
* * *
UPDATE: These are the opening lines I remember that made an impression on me (and still do)--
"Decency, reality, and love;
Personal views and public opinion--
One who knows the Kama Sutra sees through all such things,
And is not programmed by one's appetites."
(Kama Sutra 7.2.51) / Page 21 of this book
This is a huge and very high-quality coffee table / art book. Generous full-color, beautiful illustrations throughout (enhanced by the size of the book's pages), and high-quality print.
This is a book that would appeal to anyone with an interest in eroticism (not pornography), or to anyone who'd like to "open their minds" to the distinction between what is erotic and pornographic.
The book features excerpts from the Kama Sutra. It was from this book that I directly learned how the actual/ancient Kama Sutra was not a sex manual (as it's taken to be in Westernized cultures), but as something psychological to enhance a person's personal/spiritual life.
Now I have to go look for this great book once again that's in my bedroom on the shelf (alongside Anais Nin and DH Lawrence)!
* * *
UPDATE: These are the opening lines I remember that made an impression on me (and still do)--
"Decency, reality, and love;
Personal views and public opinion--
One who knows the Kama Sutra sees through all such things,
And is not programmed by one's appetites."
(Kama Sutra 7.2.51) / Page 21 of this book
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2012
