Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s1.10

c5.s1.10

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