The Book of Love: In search of the Kamasutra, By James McConnachie
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.It was intended to revive and commemorate an ancient tradition; it might well have been intended as a parody; above all, it was written for a particular class of layabout. What it was never meant to be was pornography.
The Kamasutra has been many things to many interests. When Richard Burton, explorer and erotologist, found it (he was not, by the way, its translator), he saw in its civilised espousal of sex as an art an antidote to the prudery of his own time. Western orientalists since have seen in it a proto-homophilia. Modern India itself does not quite seem to have made up its mind.
The nagaraka, the fop for whom the Kamasutra was intended, seems almost quaint now: teaching a mynah bird how to talk would not now strike us as the height of decadence. James McConnachie himself seems ambivalent about the book's significance. How else could it be? As he points out, "As a text, the Kamasutra is no more than the glorious ruin of an ancient pleasure palace, a site to be marvelled at but no longer occupied".
Atlantic £8.99
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments