Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s3.52

c5.s3.52

Next, Prof. Bhattacharya remarks, “It seems a little remarkable that Vātsyāyana should not have mentioned any of his predecessors more contiguous to his own date but should have looked so far back as to the 4th century B.C. This would argue a certain break in the continuity of the study.” There was indeed such a break in the continuity of the study of the science of Erotics, as Vātsyāyana himself asserts that the Kāmaśāstra was very near extinction (utsannakalpam-abhūt) before he took it up, so much so, that he had to fall back upon the ancient and little-read text of Bābhravya to compile his work; he does not think much of the monographs of Dattaka and others which he holds were rather fragmentary and scrappy (khaṇḍaśaḥ praṇītam).⁶