Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s3.49

c5.s3.49

The particular point on which, however, Prof. Bhattacharya sets up a comparison between the two works viz., the classification of men and women into different categories, proves nothing, as the different authors have proceeded to classify them from different points of view. Vātsyāyana divides men into Śaśa, Vṛṣa and Aśva and women into Mṛgī, Baḍavā and Hastinī from their different capacities for samprayoga, while Bharata’s classification of women into 24 varieties⁴ is based on æsthetic, intellectual and moral standards. No comparison lies between the two authors in this respect and the more elaborate classification of Bharata does not necessarily imply a later date. We find the same threefold classification of males and females in the Ananga-raṅga, a work on erotics composed in the late 15th or early 16th century A.C. when the Lodi Emperors were ruling at Delhi.⁵