Note on nail-marks and tooth-bites

Note: this text is extracted from Book X, chapter 66.

On page 181 we read that the illicit passions of the queen and the other ladies were discovered by the husbands noticing the marks of scratches and bites on different parts of their bodies. To the Western mind this may appear an unimportant, if not unnecessary, intimate detail which would have been better omitted. Not so, however, in Hindu ethics. Both scratching and biting are given important parts in Vātsyāyana’s Kāma Sūlra, which is one of the earliest works dealing with the political and social conditions of ancient India. Its date can be taken at about a.d. 250. The deductions for arriving at this conclusion will be found in an article by Harañcandra Chakladar, “Vātsyāyana—the Author of the Kāmasūtra: Date and Place of Origin,” Journal of the Department of Letters of the University of Calcutta, vol. iv, 1921, pp. 85-122. See also my Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton, London, 1923, pp. 168-171.

In the tenth or eleventh centuries a.d. Kalyāṇa Malla wrote on the same subject in his Anaṅga-Raṅga, basing his work on similar chapters in the Kāma Sūtra.

As both these works are very hard to procure I herewith give a selection of extracts from them. For the Kāma Sūtra I follow the translation by K. Raṅgaswami Iyeṅgar, Lahore, 1921; and for the Anaṅga-Raṅga that by “A. F. F. and B.F.R.” (i.e. F. F. Arbuthnot and Sir Richard F. Burton), issued by the so-called Kāma Shastra Society in 1885.

Both works give a list of desirable qualities to be found in finger-nails. They are to be:

“Without spots and lines, clean, bright, convex, hard, and unbroken. Wise men have given in the Shastras these six qualities of the nails” (An. Ran., p. 104).

Vātsyāyana gives eight kinds of nakhavilekhana(m)—“scratching with the finger-nails.” They are as follows (Kā. Sūt., pp. 64-66):—

(1) Āchhuritaka(m)—superficially toucing. (See Burton’s note in An. Ran., p. 105.)

(2) Ardhacandra, or “crescent moon,” is the curving cut produced with the finger-nails at the neck or on the breasts of the woman.

(3) Maṇḍala(m) (in An. Ran., Maṇḍalaka), or “full moon,” is when a pair of such cuts as described in (2) are produced opposite to one another on the above parts of the body. It can also be inflicted on the lower part of the navel, the surface of the buttocks and the joint of the thighs.

(4) Rekhā (written Lekhā on p. 65), or “line of scratch,” may be inflicted on all parts of the body. These should be short and never very long.

(5) Vyāghranakhaka(m), “like the tiger’s claw,” is the crooked form of the lekhā, or mere line of scratch. Its place of operation is the foreparts of the woman’s breasts. (This variety is omitted in the An. Ran.)

(6) Mayūrapadaka(m), “peacock’s footprint,” is made by joining the five fingers together and drawing them over the surface of the breasts towards the nipple, and making short scratches. The cluster of lines so formed receives the ahove name.

Kalyāṇa Malla describes it rather differently (An. Ran., p. 10.5). It is “made by placing the thumb upon the nipple, and the four fingers upon the breast adjacent, at the same time pressing the nails till the mark resembles the trail of the peacock, which he leaves when walking upon mud.”

(7) Śaśaplutaka(m), “the hopping of a hare,” follows immediately on the above on the mistress expressing her approbation. The man inflicts five close finger-nail prints on the nipple itself."

(8) Utpalapatraka(m), “lotus-pctal,” is formed by nail prints resembling a lotus petal made on the base of the breast and all around the waist where the belt is worn.

The Anaṅga-Raṅga omits the utpalapalraka and substitutes the anvartha, which is mentioned separately in the Kāma Sūtra, as it is only given when the husband or lover is going abroad. It consists of three deep marks or scratches made by the nails of the first three fingers on the back, the breasts and the parts about the yoni (An. Ran., pp. 105, 106).

Among the concluding remarks given by Vātsyāyana is one which the ladies in our story would have done well to have observed:

“The aforesaid actions with the finger-nails should not be resorted to in the case of other men’s wives or concubines, as otherwise the marks would betray their secret love.”

With regard to the Daśañcachhedya, or “biting with the teeth,” both authors are nearly similar, except that Vātsyāyana enumerates eight, instead of seven, varieties.

We are first informed (Kām. Sūt., p. 68) that the teeth should be even, and attractive of colour as in chewing betel leaves. They should have pointed ends.

The varieties are as follows:—

(1) Gūḍhaka(m), “secret,” where the under-lip of the woman is caught between the lip and one tooth of the man and lightly pressed, rendering it slightly reddish without perforating the skin. (This was the actual variety of bite noticed by the king in our story.)

(2) Ucchūnaka(m), the same as (1), only effected with greater pressure so as to cause a swelling. It is also done on the left cheek.

(3) Pravālamaṇi, “coral,” is the red spot or mark produced by the repeated applications of the tooth and lip on a particular part of the body of a woman, without, however, inflicting a cut.

(4) Maṇimālā, “garland,” is a row of pravālamaṇi marks.

(5) Bindu, “point,” is the name given to a tiny wound on that part of a woman’s body where the skin is thin. It is pulled out a little and bitten by the application of two teeth (one lower and one upper), thus causing the wound.

(6) Bindumālā, “garland of dots,” is a row of bindu marks. Kalyāṇa Malla explains further that the “garland” is formed by the application of all the teeth, not merely two, as in (5).

These two mālās, continues Vātsyāyana, are acts applicable to the neck, armpits and the surface of the yoni, on account of the looseness of the skin in these parts.

(7) Khaṇḍābhraka(m), “rugged cloud,” a mark of the form of a rugged piece of cloud. It is to he effected on the base of the breast. Kalyāṇa Malla says it can also be applied to the brow, cheek and neck.

(8) Varāhacharvitaka(m), “chewing of a boar.” When a number of long teeth-marks are produced close to each other on the base of the breast of the woman, by the process of chewing its successive parts, the intervening spaces being rendered red by that action, the above name is applicable.

In concluding these two sections Vātsyāyana says that both the acts of scratching and biting are sometimes applied on certain articles of decoration to be sent to one’s mistress, such as viśeṣaka (an ornamental cutting of a leaf for the decoration of the forehead) karṇapūra (a flower ornament for the ear), puṣpāpīḍa (a garland or bunch of flowers), tāmbūlapalāśa (betel leaf), and a leaf of tamāla. These are known as ābhiyogika, or, preliminary acts done to signify love tending to the lovers’ ultimate union. Thus it is a kind of language of signs, to which we have already referred (see Vol. I, pp. 80 n ¹-82 n). For fuller details of nakhavilekhana(m) and daśanacchedya see R. Schmidt, Beiträge zur indischen Erotik: Das Liebesleben des Sanskritvolkes, 2nd edition, Berlin, 1911, pp. 356-379-— n.m.p.