Sexual frankness without a hint of guilt or prurience is the great legacy which the Eastern, and in particular Indian, traditions have given us. As an expression of human culture, and as a pillow book for the modern boudoir, the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana the most famous work on sex ever written the Ananga-Ranga of Kalyana Malla, and Sheikh Nefzai's Perfumed Garden, set forth the principles of sensual pleasure with poetry, wisdom, and humor, celebrating love as an ecstatic expression of life's beauty.
Here, for the first time, Sir Richard Burton's translations of the classic Eastern love texts have been published in one volume.
The first Kama Sutra to be illustrated in color with a dazzling and unique collection of Indian painting and sculpture.
These erotic treatises are not sex manuals in the modern sense clinical collections of coital postures but a broader and more humane exploration of Eastern sexual customs.
"Sex is a good way to begin understanding another culture, just as it is a good way to begin understanding another individual," writes Charles Fowkes in his introduction to Sir Richard Burton's classic translation of the Eastern love texts. As many of the devotees of this popular book can attest, reading about the ancient sexual traditions of India is also a good way for contemporary readers to understand sex. Sir Burton, who is well known as the translator of The 1001 Arabian Nights, condensed the three ancient love manuals of India (Kama Sutra, Ananga-Ranga, and Perfumed Garden) into one book. What makes this a favorite of all the Kama Sutra titles are the unabashedly erotic texts and color illustrations from India, which offer specific suggestions, such as how to "Milita" kiss (the after-fight reconciliation kiss) as well as how to link a former life into current lovemaking. --Gail Hudson
