Aswer the question

Reading Questions for Class Discussion

Instructions: Please review the following questions and be prepared to discuss in class. Students are not required to hand in answers but will be expected to contribute the class discussion about this document.

1. Why do you think the author places such importance on personal hygiene and keeping a good home?

2. What kinds of conclusions can we draw from the passage about the social status of women?

3. What is a “Pithamarda” and what is his relationship to other members of society?

4. Does this excerpt argue at all for or against the caste system? Explain.

5. According to the passage above, how does the Kama Sutra define “citizen”? Be specific

Excerpt from Kama Sutra (1883)

Vatsayayana. 1883. Kama Sutra. Translated by Sir Richard Burton. Britain.

The pursuit of pleasure and love often feature prominently in Hindu creative works. From an early time in India, then, many scholars and philosophers chose to study love and pleasure. The “Rules of Love” was compiled by Mallanaga Vatsyayana, who lived in Benares sometime between 100-400s AD, from earlier Sanskrit sayings and poetry. The most famous western translation dates from the 1870s, undertaken by a famous traveler named Sir Richard Burton.

Pursuit of a moral and proper life and even material well-being were considered more desirable than the pursuit of sexual pleasure. Contrary to popular Western opinion, most of the Kama Sutra does not deal with sexuality or sexual positions, but rather with the ideas of dharma, or proper living and fulfilling one’s station in life. Of the roughly 36 chapters in Kama Sutra, only 10 deal specifically with issues of sexuality, such as sexual positions. Most of the text deals with proper and appropriate behavior and lifestyles, household matters, relationships, courtship, and so on.

Life of a Citizen Having thus acquired learning, a man, with the wealth that he may have gained by gift, conquest, purchase, deposit, or inheritance from his ancestors, should become a householder, and pass the life of a citizen. He should take a house in a city, or large village, or in the vicinity of good men, or in a place which is the resort of many persons. This abode should be situated near some water, and divided into different compartments for different purposes. It should be surrounded by a garden, and also contain two rooms, an outer and an inner one. The inner room should be occupied by the females, while the outer room, balmy with rich perfumes, should contain a bed, soft, agreeable to the sight, covered with a clean white cloth, low in the middle part, having garlands and bunches of flowers upon it, and a canopy above it, and two pillows, one at the top, another at the bottom. There should be also a sort of couch besides, and at the head of this a sort of stool, on which should be placed the fragrant ointments for the night, as well as flowers, pots containing collyrium and other fragrant substances, things used for perfuming the mouth, and the bark of the common citron tree. Near the couch, on the ground, there should be a pot for spitting, a box containing ornaments, and also a lute hanging from a peg made of the tooth of an elephant, a board for drawing, a pot containing perfume, some books, and some garlands of the yellow amaranth flowers. Not far from the couch, and on the ground, there should be a round seat, a toy cart, and a board for playing with dice; outside the outer room there should be cages of birds, and a separate place for spinning, carving and such like diversions. In the garden there should be a whirling swing and a common swing, as also a bower of creepers covered with flowers, in which a raised parterre should be made for sitting. Now the householder, having got up in the morning and performed his necessary duties, should wash his teeth, apply a limited quantity of ointments and perfumes to his body, put some ornaments on his person and collyrium on his eyelids and below his eyes, color his lips with alacktaka, and look at himself in the glass. Having then eaten betel leaves, with other things that give fragrance to the mouth, he should perform his usual business. He should bathe daily, anoint his body with oil every other day, apply a lathering substance to his body every three days, get his head (including face) shaved every four days and the other parts of his body every five or ten days. All these things should be done without fail, and the sweat of the armpits should also be removed. Meals should be taken in the forenoon, in the afternoon, and again at night, according to Charayana. After breakfast, parrots and other birds should be taught to speak, and the fighting of cocks, quails, and rams should follow. A limited time should be devoted to diversions with Pithamardas, Vitas, and Vidushakas, and then should be taken the midday sleep. After this the householder, having put on his clothes and ornaments, should, during the afternoon, converse with his friends. In the evening there should be singing, and after that the householder, along with his friend, should await in his room, previously decorated and perfumed, the arrival of the woman that may be attached to him, or he may send a female messenger for her, or go for her himself. After her arrival at his house, he and his friend should welcome her, and entertain her with a loving and agreeable conversation. Thus end the duties of the day. The following are the things to be done occasionally as diversions or amusements:

· Holding festivals in honor of different Deities

· Social gatherings of both sexes

· Drinking parties

· Picnics

· Other social diversions

Drinking Parties Men and women should drink in one another's houses. And here the men should cause the public women to drink, and should then drink themselves, liquors . . . which are of bitter and sour taste; also drinks concocted from the barks of various trees, wild fruits and leaves. Going to Gardens or Picnics In the forenoon, men having dressed themselves should go to gardens on horseback, accompanied by public women and followed by servants. And having done there all the duties of the day, and passed the time in various agreeable diversions, such as the fighting of quails, cocks and rams, and other spectacles, they should return home in the afternoon in the same manner, bringing with them bunches of flowers, etc. The same also applies to bathing in summer in water from which wicked or dangerous animals have previously been taken out, and which has been built in on all sides. Other Social Diversions Spending nights playing with dice. Going out on moonlight nights. Keeping the festive day in honor of spring. Plucking the sprouts and fruits of the mango trees. Eating the fibers of lotuses. Eating the tender ears of corn. Picnicking in the forests when the trees get their new foliage. The Udakakashvedika or sporting in the water. Decorating each other with the flowers of some trees. Pelting each other with the flowers of the Kadamba tree, and many other sports which may either be known to the whole country, or may be peculiar to particular parts of it. These and similar other amusements should always be carried on by citizens. The above amusements should be followed by a person who diverts himself alone in company with a courtesan, as well as by a courtesan who can do the same in company with her maid servants or with citizens. A Pithamarda is a man without wealth, alone in the world, whose only property consists of his Mallika, some lathering substance and a red cloth, who comes from a good country, and who is skilled in all the arts; and by teaching these arts is received in the company of citizens, and in the abode of public women. A Vita is a man who has enjoyed the pleasures of fortune, who is a compatriot of the citizens with whom he associates, who is possessed of the qualities of a householder, who has his wife with him, and who is honored in the assembly of citizens and in the abodes of public women, and lives on their means and on them. A Vidushaka (also called a Vaihasaka, i.e. one who provokes laughter) is a person only acquainted with some of the arts, who is a jester, and who is trusted by all. These persons are employed in matters of quarrels and reconciliations between citizens and public women. This remark applies also to female beggars, to women with their heads shaved, to adulterous women, and to public women skilled in all the various arts. Thus a citizen living in his town or village, respected by all, should call on the persons of his own caste who may be worth knowing. He should converse in company and gratify his friends by his society, and obliging others by his assistance in various matters, he should cause them to assist one another in the same way. There are some verses on this subject as follows: 'A citizen discoursing, not entirely in the Sanskrit language, nor wholly in the dialects of the country, on various topics in society, obtains great respect. The wise should not resort to a society disliked by the public, governed by no rules, and intent on the destruction of others. But a learned man living in a society which acts according to the wishes of the people, and which has pleasure for its only object is highly respected in this world.'