The complete Kama Sutra : the first unabridged modern translation of the classic Indian text by Vatsyayana : including the Jayamangala commentary from the Sanskrit by Yashodhara and extracts from the Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastra

Cover image for The complete Kama Sutra : the first unabridged modern translation of the classic Indian text by Vatsyayana : including the Jayamangala commentary from the Sanskrit by Yashodhara and extracts from the Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastra

Title:

Alternate title:

Kamasutra

Author:

Vatsyayana, author.

Danielou, Alain.

Physical Description:

vii, 564 p. ; 24 cm.

Subject Term:

Love.

Sex.

Author(s):

Danielou, Alain.

Publisher:

Park Street Press,

Publication Date:

1994

ISBN:

9780892814923

9780892815258

Publication Information:

Rochester, Vt. : Park Street Press, c1994.

Call Number:

306.7 VATSYAY

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607001881138	Adult Nonfiction	306.7 VATSYAY	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

This definitive volume is the first modern translation of Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra to include two essential commentaries: the Jayamangala of Yashodhara and the modern Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastri. Alain Danilou spent four years comparing versions of the Kama Sutra in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and English, drawing on his intimate experience of India, to preserve the full explicitness of the original. I wanted to demystify India, he writes, to show that a period of great civilization, of high culture, is forcibly a period of great liberty.

Author Notes

Alain Danilou (1907-1994) was without question a Renaissance man. Following his early years as an artist, dancer, and musician in Paris (Cocteau, Diaghilev, and Stravinsky were among his friends), Danilou settled in India, where he spent fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit, philosophy, and music. After numerous university appointments in India, he returned in 1963 to Europe, establishing the Institute of Comparative Music Studies in Berlin for the reevaluation of Asian music. Danilou wrote more than thirty books about the philosophy, religion, history, and arts of India, including Gods of Love and Ecstasy ; Myths and Gods of India ; Virtue, Success, Pleasure, and Liberation ; While the Gods Play ; The Phallus ; and Music and the Power of Sound .

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

Long dismissed as a sort of Sanskrit Joy of Sex , the Kama Sutra , composed by Vatsyayana in the fourth century B.C., explores sexuality as an integral part of human existence. Arguing that happiness and moral duty ( dharma ) depend on elaborate social ritual to satisfy the essential needs of life, the Kama Sutra describes the practices, rituals, and lore of the erotic ( kama ) in human relations, both heterosexual and homosexual. Noted Indiologist Danielou provides a fluent and literal translation of the entire Sanskrit original with interpolated extracts from the 12th-century commentary by Yashodara and the modern Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastri. This is an important advance over Burton's Victorian abridgment.-- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.