Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s2.61

c5.s2.61

Besides the above mention of certain well-known stories, there are many references throughout the work of Vātsyāyana to love-stories in general, showing that story-telling was very popular in the days of our author; and when we are reminded that the enormous mass of narratives in the Mahāvastu, Divyāvadāna and Aśvaghosha's Sūtrālaṅkāra on the one hand, and the Śānti and Anuśāsana Parvas of the Mahābhārata on the other, as well as those in the Tantrākhyāyika, were mostly embodied in their present form about the early centuries of the Christian era, we feel inclined to think that it was in this period when narrative literature flourished most in India, that his treatise on love was composed by Vātsyāyana who found the recital of love-stories the readiest means of rousing the tender passion in the hearts of maids and swains.