xi Introduction Both juicy and exceedingly dry, sensitive and cynical, ahead of its time and appallingly retrograde, the Kamasutra is the most famous guide to sensual pleasure ever written—indeed, one of the most notorious books in the history of the world. Its acute insights into human nature are still relevant today. While previous publishers typically either stole the word “Kamasutra” and slapped it on a book of modern photographs, or neglected to include the original Sanskrit, or reprinted an old, faulty translation (or introduced a new, faulty translation), or included reproductions of miniatures made more than a millennium after the text was composed, YogaVidya.com and I have labored mightily to create a proper edition. It includes the original Sanskrit typeset in Devanagari, a new, accurate and readable English translation, and illustrations using period clothing, jewelry, and settings that actually correspond to what is described in the text. Composed in northern India in the third or fourth century ce at the beginning of the Gupta Empire, the apex of India’s classical civilization, the Kamasutra is the oldest existing Indian text about pleasure. It was a handbook for the urbane man of culture, courtesans, and upper-class women. Painting a vivid picture of life in India, its ideas permeated classical literature. It is a digest of several older works, which in turn were said to draw from a large work by an attendant of the god Shiva, implying a divine origin.

xi Introduction Both juicy and exceedingly dry, sensitive and cynical, ahead of its time and appallingly retrograde, the Kamasutra is the most famous guide to sensual pleasure ever written—indeed, one of the most notorious books in the history of the world. Its acute insights into human nature are still relevant today. While previous publishers typically either stole the word “Kamasutra” and slapped it on a book of modern photographs, or neglected to include the original Sanskrit, or reprinted an old, faulty translation (or introduced a new, faulty translation), or included reproductions of miniatures made more than a millennium after the text was composed, YogaVidya.com and I have labored mightily to create a proper edition. It includes the original Sanskrit typeset in Devanagari, a new, accurate and readable English translation, and illustrations using period clothing, jewelry, and settings that actually correspond to what is described in the text. Composed in northern India in the third or fourth century ce at the beginning of the Gupta Empire, the apex of India’s classical civilization, the Kamasutra is the oldest existing Indian text about pleasure. It was a handbook for the urbane man of culture, courtesans, and upper-class women. Painting a vivid picture of life in India, its ideas permeated classical literature. It is a digest of several older works, which in turn were said to draw from a large work by an attendant of the god Shiva, implying a divine origin.

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Matsyendra, Goraksha, and others know well the science
of Hatha. By their grace, Yogi Svatmarama also knows it.
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Shiva, Matsyendra, Shabara, Anandabhairava,
Chaurangi, Mina, Goraksha, Virupaksha, Bileshaya,
Manthana, Bhairava, Siddhi, Buddha, Kanthadi,
Korantaka, Surananda, Siddhapada, Charpati, Kaneri,
Pujyapada, Nityanatha, Niranjana, Kapali, Bindunatha,
Kakachandishvara, Allama Prabhudeva, Ghodacholi,
Tintini, Bhanuki, Naradeva, Khanda, and Kapalika—
these and other great masters, having conquered death
through the power of Hatha Yoga, roam the universe.
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