Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s1.1

c5.s1.1

In speaking of the origin of the *Kāmaśāstra*, Vātsyāyana says at the beginning of his work¹ that at first, Prajāpati, the ‘Lord of Beings,’ for the welfare and preservation of his progeny composed a huge encyclopædia in a hundred thousand chapters dealing with the three objects of human life, *viz.*, *Dharma*, *Artha* and *Kāma*²; the first two of these subjects were next taken up by Manu and Bṛhaspati respectively and Nandī the attendant of Mahādeva, took up the third which he dealt with in a thousand chapters. This last work was condensed into five hundred chapters by Śvetaketu, the son of Uddālaka. The work of Śvetaketu was further abridged into a hundred and fifty chapters and divided into seven sections by Bābhravya, a native of the Pañcāla country. Next, Dattaka, at the request of the