Julianne Balmain - The Kama Sutra Deck: 50 Ways to Love Your Lover

50 Ways to Love Your Lover

By JULIANNE BALMAIN
Illustrations By TRISHA KRAUSS

The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian guide to love, written by the Indian sage Vatsyayana, probably in the third century A.D. Contrary to popular belief, it is not entirely a sex manual but a treatise on life, eroticism, success, and happiness. Kama is both the name of the Hindu god of love and the word for sensual pleasure. A sutra is an educational aphorism or verse. Thus, The Kama Sutra is a book of instructional verses on love. It covers a wide range of basics, including how to live well, choose a wife, entertain her, and pleasure her in bed, as well as more esoteric topics such as how to seduce other mens wives, navigate a harem, manage a mistress, and use magic potions.

The original Kama Sutra is said to have come down from the gods, inspired by a particularly steamy session between the divine Shiva and his consort, Parvati, and communicated to humanity by Shivas bull, Nandin. What is certain is that The Kama Sutra existed in various forms for centuries before Vatsyayana penned his famous version of the sixty-four love arts, which he said he based on what others had written before him. In 1883, British explorer and man of letters Sir Richard F. Burton, with the help of two Indian scholars and his fellow countryman F. F. Arbuthnot, translated Vatsyayanas Kama Sutra into English for the first time. A number of more complete and accurate translations have been produced since then, but Burtons has remained the standard, perhaps because it was the first or, more likely, because of its lyricism and the obvious pleasure Burton took in his task.

What is most remarkable about The Kama Sutra is not that it is still relevant to contemporary relationships, although that fact is astonishing, but that it is frank, open-minded, and largely free of shame and guilt. Vatsyayana does not hide his eyes from practices others might choose to gloss over or ignore entirely. For the most part, he states plainly what is done and leaves it to individuals to decide what is right for them. He summarizes, In all these things connected with love, everybody should act according to the custom of his country, and his own inclination.

Vatsyayanas Kama Sutra is made up of seven books or chapters. While Kama Sutra: 50 Ways to Love Your Lover touches on all of them, Ive focused on the second book, On Sexual Union, because it is the most practical and activity oriented. In most places, Ive continued Burtons somewhat euphemistic use of congress for sex, lingam for the penis, yoni for the vagina, and jaghana for the sexual organs of either party, in part because they help convey to Western ears the exotic flavor of the original. Like the original text its based on, Kama Sutra: 50 Ways to Love Your Lover is primarily directed at heterosexual relationships but is open and adaptable to all kinds of romances.

Kama Sutra: 50 Ways to Love Your Lover is intended as practical inspiration for love in all its manifestations, and to help you bring more joy, desire, fulfillment, and sensuality into your relationship on a daily basis. The pages are divided into four color-coded sections: Seduction, Touch, Congress, and Love. Seduction covers the preparations for love, Touch addresses foreplay, Congress gets down to the nitty-gritty, and Love offers tips for ongoing relationships. How you use this book is up to you. Kama Sutra: 50 Ways to Love Your Lover does not pretend to be comprehensive when it comes to the act of love. It is meant to be a starting point for your own spirited creativity in the art of lovesparks to kindle the flame of passion. The important part is to maintain an open mind, communicate, be patient, and keep learning. What fails one day may work like a charm the next, and what drives one partner mad with lust may have little effect on another. The pursuit of Kama is a lifelong journey.

Vatsyayana says that new lovers should enjoy collecting flowers together as well as cooking, playing cards, and playing the parts of members of a fictitious family. There is a sweetness and joy to the lovers in The Kama Sutras pages. They quarrel and make up, sing and recite poetry, tease and blush and pout, play tricks on each other, tell jokes, and lounge on silken sheets. The greatest lesson The Kama Sutra has to offer modern lovers may be to take the time to indulge the self and each other in such rambling, carefree, unproductive leisure, and to allow the spirit of bliss to infuse the days.

By all means practice safe sex without exception, if not for your own health then for your partners. Safe sex means, in addition to using a condom whenever you have contact with genitalia, behaving in the compassionate, responsible, and respectful manner advocated throughout The Kama Sutra and in keeping with the Dharma, or rightful path.

May love find you and, when it does, may you be well prepared to honor it with knowledge and skill in the sixty-four ways.

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton (Modern Library, 2002). Burtons full text, marvelously written, without illustrations.

The Illustrated Kama Sutra, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton (Park Street Press, 1991). Partial text of the Kama Sutra, Ananga-Ranga, and Perfumed Garden, illustrated with ancient erotic art from India.

The Complete Kama Sutra, translated by Alain Danilou (Park Street Press, 1994). A fascinating new translation of more than five hundred pages, without illustrations.

The Love Teachings of Kama Sutra, translated by Indra Sinha (Marlowe & Company, 1980). Inspiring, poetic, and lavishly illustrated.

The Arabian Nights, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton (Modern Library, 2001). The best bedtime stories ever written. Ideal for reading aloud.

Erotic Poems, selected by Peter Washington (Everymans Library, 1994). All the heavy hitters squeezed into one little volume.

Forever, by Judy Blume (Pocket Books, 1996). The first time, meticulously documented.

Love Letters, selected by Peter Washington (Everymans Library, 1996). Epistolary snapshots of the joys, trials, and absurdities of love.

Love Poems from the Japanese, by Kenneth Rexroth (Shambhala, 2003). Poems as bright and hard as shards of glass.

Love Is a Stranger, by Rumi, translated by Kabir Helminski (Threshold, 1993). Inspiration from the thirteenth-century Persian poet and mystic.

The Lover, by Marguerite Duras (Pantheon, 1998). Shes underage. Hes hot, rich, and Chinese.

One Hundred Love Sonnets, by Pablo Neruda (University of Texas Press, 1986). Inspiration from the twentieth-century Chilean poet and lover.

The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, by A. N. Roquelaure (Plume, 1999). Pseudonymous pornography by Anne Rice.

The Story of O, by Pauline Reage (Ballantine, 1989). A tale of bondage and submission.

Many thanks to everyone who generously lent a hand in the creation of Kama Sutra: 50 Ways to Love Your Lover, whether by reading manuscript, offering insights and expertise, performing all-important field research, or enduring a barrage of personal questions. As always, your help has made all the difference. Thanks also to our wonderful illustrator, Trisha Krauss, and the very talented team at Chronicle Books. jb