By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : “Kama Sutra”, the second century Indian treatise on love, courtship and the art of sexual union written by Vatsyayana, has made a comeback in conservative Nepal with two authors vying to take erotica to the people.
The treatise, known worldwide for its graphic description of 64 positions of lovemaking, was first translated into English from the original Sanskrit in the 19th century by famous traveller Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Though it has been translated into languages as diverse as Tagalog and Tibetan since then, in the former Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, where sex remains a taboo, there were no Nepali editions.
Now, keeping pace with the sweeping changes that overtook the sleepy little kingdom since the fall of King Gyanendra’s government and the end of the Maoist insurgency, a resident of Janakpur town in south Nepal has ventured to produce the professedly first translation into Nepali of the renowned treatise.
However, despite his feat, Nepali translator Sukdev Upadhyay prefers to remain anonymous first to see how the book is received.
Priced at NRS 150 (over $2), the cover shows a couple kissing ardently and is not displayed by shopkeepers in their windows. After inquiries, a shopkeeper brings it out from the inner room.
One of the distributors of the Nepali “Kama Sutra”, known only as Yajnaji, says Upadhyay lived in India’s holy city of Benares for some time and could have learnt Sanskrit there or probably translated the book from its Hindi edition available in Nepal.
“He published the books himself and gave me about 400 copies to sell,” Yajnaji told IANS. “He said he would contact me after some time and did not leave any phone number or address.”
The secrecy, says the second author of the other Nepali “Kama Sutra”, is probably to avoid being made fun of by friends and relatives.
Thirty-three-year-old Netra Acharya, the author of the second “Kama Sutra”, is more forthcoming though he says he too used a nom de plume to protect identity.
Acharya is a freelance editor, writer and translator who comes from Parbat district but now has shifted base to the capital.
“I am an avid reader,” he says. “I have a wide collection of books on sexology, psychology, philosophy and related subjects.”
Acharya wrote his “Kama Sutra”, which precedes Upadhyay’s translation by about three months, because he felt the average Nepali was clueless about the art of lovemaking and had no one to turn to in Nepal’s closed society.
“I distributed a questionnaire among 20-25 of my friends,” he says. “They were distinctly uncomfortable answering questions about sex. Sex is a taboo in Nepal; no one wants to talk about it.”
Acharya sees himself as an ‘acharya’ – Nepal’s new love guru.
His “Kama Sutra” is not a straight translation but an amalgamation of bits and pieces taken from a medley of books, like “The Art of Seduction” by Robert Greene, Osho aka Rajneesh’s discourses on love and even the two Kinsey Reports – the two books on sexual behaviour by American zoologist Alfred Kinsey.
Acahrya says he wrote his “Kama Sutra” for teenagers and the middle aged.
“Teenagers need a book on sex because they are curious and have no knowledge,” he says. “Middle-aged people need such a book because they have no innovation and imagination.”