Kamashastra Discourse (Life in Ancient India)
by Nidheesh Kannan B. | 2018 | 52,434 words
This page relates ‘Works on Kamashastra (e): Ratiratnapradipika’ of the study on Kamashastra representing the discipline of Kama (i.e., ‘sensual pleasure’). The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana from the 4th century is one of the most authoratitive Sanskrit texts belonging this genre. This study focusses on the vision of life of ancient India reflected in Kamashastra.
2. Works on Kāmaśāstra (e): Ratiratnapradīpikā
Prauḍhadevarāja is the author of Ratiratnapradīpikā which is composed about seventeenth century CE. (Sushil Kumar De, 1969: 105). The text is divided in seven chapters. The author refers to the earlier authors of Kāmaśāstra like Nandīśa, Gauṇīputra, Vātsyāyana, Mallanāga, Kokkoka, Munikovida and Guṇapatāka. Ratiratnapradīpikā follows the style closely as of Kokkoka’s Ratirahasya.
In the first chapter, the fourfold classification of women with the explanation of each and the places of erotic activation for women according to the view of Gauṇīpura are described. In chapter two, the classification of males and females according to Vātsyāyana is depicted. Details about the foreplay in sexual intercourse with short descriptions on embraces, kisses, scratching, biting etc are seen in the third chapter. Fourth chapter is about the sexual intercourse, varieties of itching, various sexual postures etc. The remaining chapters, fifth, sixth and seventh deal with the details of sexual relationship with one’s own wife, others” wife and prostitutes respectively.