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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s16: The Kāmaśāstras

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s16

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The Kāmaśāstras

c10.s16.1

In the speculations on *Kāma* (pleasure, joy, enjoyment) the precursors of Vātsyāyana or rather the founders of this science were as follows:²⁵

c10.s16.2

²⁵ Winternitz: *Geschichte* Vol. III, (Leipzig 1921) pp. 538-539. For the date of the *Kāmasūtra* see also H. Chakladar: *Vātsyāyana* (Calcutta 1921), and *Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra*, (Calcutta 1929) pp. 19, 24, 33.

c10.s16.3

1. Śvetaketu, son of Uddālaka (of the *Chhāndogya Upaniṣad*, *Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* and *Jātaka* fame).
2. Bābhravya of Pānchāla.
3. Dattaka.
4. Chārāyaṇa (named in the *Arthaśāstra*).
5. Suvarṇanābha.
6. Ghoṭakamukha (perhaps a contemporary of the Śākyan-Buddhist (Udena) named in the *Arthaśāstra*.
7. Gonardiya (named in Patanjali's *Mahābhāṣya* as grammarian).
8. Goṇikaputra (named in Patanjali's *Mahābhāṣya* as grammarian).
9. Kusumāra

c10.s16.4

Vātsyāyana has been placed in the third century A.C. by Haran Chandra Chakladar but in the first century A.C. by Hara Prasad Sastri.²⁶

c10.s16.5

²⁶ Lecture IV. in H. P. Sastri: *Magadhan Literature* (Calcutta 1923) p. 87.

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