1. Tradition of Kāmaśāstra

One of the earliest scientific traditions across the country, Kāmaśāstra has assumed dimensions galore in the context of Indian social life. This chapter is a general survey of Kāmaśāstra works written in Sanskrit and it attempts to provide general awareness on the Kāmaśāstra discourse.

Vātsyāyana states that the evolution of Kāmaśāstra took place in the loary past from the Prajāpati himself. Later it turned into various forms both contractive and expansive through different scholars till the formation of Kāmasūtra^[1]. Of all the Sanskrit technical treatises, Kāmaśāstra also has a background of divine origin. But, the quotations adopted by Vātsyāyana from the works of more than ten predecessors like Bābhravya, Gonardīya, Goṇikāputra, Cārāyaṇa, Suvarṇanābha and Auddhālaki on various occasions prove undoubtedly that there existed a trustworthy tradition of Kāmaśāstra before Vātsyāyana. A survey of the literary history of Kāmaśāstra will automatically start from Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra. But here, Kāmsūtra is temporarily omitted for the reason that the succeeding chapter will discuss it in detail. So, the post-Kāmasūtra literature is the subject matter of this chapter and it can be divided into two types namely the, Kāmaśāstra and the Kāmasāhitya. Texts written in the scientific methodology may include in the former category and the texts in literary style include in the latter.