In keeping with the size of their sex organs, from the small to the middling and the large, men are typed as the hare, the bull and the horse; and women as the doe, the mare and the elephant woman.
(1)
Thus there are three equal unions in sex, where the partners are of the same size. On the other hand, there are six unequal unions. Two of these, where the man is larger than the two women next in size, are known as ‘the high’; and another, where he is larger still, as ‘the highest’. On the other hand, there are two unions called ‘the low’, and another, of the smallest man with the largest woman, called ‘the lowest’.
(2–3)
Of all these unions, the equal ones are the best and the highest and the lowest the least good. The rest are middling unions, though in them too it is better for the man to be larger than the woman, rather than the other way round. In sum, there are nine types of union according to size.
(4)
While making love, if a man is indifferent to the pleasure, has little virility and cannot bear to be hurt, his sexual impulse is classed as dull. By the same criteria there are men with middling or intense sexual impulses. With women, too, it is the same. Thus, here also there are nine kinds of sexual union, just as in the earlier classification by size.
(5–7)
In duration, similarly, there are men who climax quickly, those who are middling in this respect and those who can carry on for long. But the case of women is debatable on this point.
(8–9)
In the view of Auddalaki, a woman does not climax like a man. She has an itch which gets relieved by the man’s continued friction inside her. Combined with the erotic arousal of foreplay, this generates a different kind of feeling in her sense of pleasure.
(10–12)
How can pleasure be determined, it may be asked. Man and woman cannot know what it is like in the other, nor can they ask how it is. The answer, says Auddalaki, is that the man stops on his own after reaching a climax and pays no attention to the woman. With her it is different. Women, it should be noted, love the man who can continue for long and dislike one who finishes quickly, as they are then unable to reach their own climax at the end. Both these reactions are signs of their having achieved a climax or not.
(13–15)
It can be argued that these signs are ambiguous. What is evident, however, is that even relieving the itch for a long duration can be pleasurable:
(16–17)
A woman’s itch obtains relief
in her union with a man
and that, combined with love’s foreplay,
is what is called her sexual pleasure.
(16–17)
According to the followers of Babhravya, a young woman has a continuing emotional climax from the beginning of intercourse. A man reaches it only as he concludes. It is, they say, well known that conception is not possible without her achieving a climax.
(18)
But here too there are doubts needing resolution. Thus, at the commencement of sex the woman’s mindset may be indifferent, with not much tolerance of pain. Gradually her passion increases and she no longer cares for her body. At the end she wants to stop. All this is evident and cannot be reconciled with any continuity of climax. Even in ordinary motion, for example the revolution of a potter’s wheel or the spinning of a top, the movement is slow in the beginning, attains full momentum by degrees and tends to stop as that dissipates. This is irrefutable:
But they say man’s bliss
comes with his climax,
and for a woman
it is continuous –
her wish to conclude
is caused by dissipation
of bodily fluids.
(19–22)
According to Vatsyayana, orgasm is as manifest in the woman as in the man. How can there be a difference in the end sought by two persons of the same species engaged in the same endeavour? There may be differences in approach and in feeling. The former are due to physical nature. The man is the active doer, the girl a passive recipient. The doer contributes to action in one way, the recipient in another. And from this physical difference comes the difference in feeling. The man is aroused by the thought ‘I am possessing her’, and the girl by the thought ‘I am being possessed by him’.
(23–26)
It may be objected that if there is a difference in approach, it should also be there in the end sought. But it is not so. The approach has a cause, that is the different characteristics of the doer and the recipient. But there is no cause to establish any difference in the end sought by two persons of the same species.
(27)
It may also be objected that this analogy is inappropriate. While a work done jointly produces a single end, here two persons are intent on achieving their separate ends. However, even this does not hold. Two actions can achieve a single goal, as one may see in the clash of two rams in a contest, the striking-together of two wood-apples and the grapple of two wrestlers. To the comment that there is no distinction between the actors in these cases, it can be said that there is no essential distinction in the case of man and woman either. The difference in their approaches, as already stated, is due to their physical makeup. But their experience of pleasure is the same:
The couple are of the same species,
the pleasure they seek is the same.
But the woman should be handled so
that she reaches her climax first.
(28–30)
The similarity of a couple’s pleasure has thus been established. In terms of duration and endurance also there are nine kinds of sexual union, as there are by temperament and size.
(31)
Erotic feeling, delight, pleasure, loving emotion, sexual impulse and consummation: these are the stages of rati or bliss during sexual union. The stages of the union itself, of rata, are: coming together, coupling, privacy, going to bed together and intercourse.
(32)
Given that there are nine kinds of sexual union in keeping with the criteria of size, duration and temperament, it is not possible to enumerate all their combinations, which are far too many. Vatsyayana says they should be chosen and used with due care.
(33–34)
The man’s impulse is intense but his endurance brief in the first coupling; in later ones it is the opposite. For women it is the other way round, until the fluid gets discharged. Also, it is often said that the man’s fluid gets discharged before the woman’s.
The scholars are agreed
that women climax quicker,
being delicate by nature,
if they are aroused.
(35–37)
So far, sexual union has
been spoken of for expert minds;
now it is elaborated
to enlighten the dull.
(38)
Knowers of the science say
that pleasure is of four sorts:
that which comes from habit, or
from arousal or belief
or from sense perceptions.
(39)
Pleasure from habit is seen
in several habitual actions
like hunting and others
not manifest in words.
(40)
is engendered in the mind,
not in previous habit
or any sense perception.
(41)
It is there in kissing
and other such activities,
in oral sex with women
or persons who are eunuchs.
(42)
When the thought
‘He is not different’
causes pleasure in another:
those who know the science
call it pleasure from belief.
(43)
Pleasure from sense perceptions
is there for all to see.
Its result is the best of all
and the other three seek it too.
(44)
Considering all these pleasures,
and in keeping with the scriptures
where they are characterized,
one should act in such a way
as will suit one’s feelings.
(45)