I mentioned some time back a “friend” recieving a large insurance settlement.
Well, he’s building a house -he’s designing it now, and- as God as my witness -he wants the bedroom to look like “something out of the Kama Sutra”. I don’t know what the “Kama Sutra” look is; I thought it was a manuscript, some centuries later illustrated but anyway, there aren’t any copies in local bookshops. He asked me to look online and see if I could find something “with lots of pictures”. There’s one that comes up at or near the top of various online store listings that is priced around $20, but he says he once saw one somewhere for a couple hundred dollars. He said I don’t need to find that one, just one with lots of pictures. - Anybody know where or what to look for?
The Kama Sutra is a manuscript. I have seen a couple illustrated versions, but nothing involving interior design. The ones I have seen diagramed the various sexual positions and one text (IIRC) had a picture of that hanging basket contraption.
There is a very inexpensive book entitled “The Erotic Sentiment in the Paintings of India and Nepal” by Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger. Many of the paintings include a view of the room the couple is in, but I have to warn your friend: Most Indian interior design is a far cry from the lavishness portrayed by Hollywood (or Bollywood, for that matter). Just tell your friend he needs a good Indian carpet, a bed, lots of throw pillows in various shapes and sizes (the triangular Thai ones come in quite handy), some insence and a few oil lamps.
Of course, I’m sure your friend realizes that focusing on the decor instead of the sexual and spiritual union with his partner is in disagreement with the teachings of the Kama Sutra, right?
“I should not take bribes and Minister Bal Bahadur KC should not do so either. But if clerks take a bribe of Rs 50-60 after a hard day’s work, it is not an issue.” ----Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Current Prime Minister of Nepal
Like I care. The guy is most of the way to being rich, and it’s not like he’ll ever get me in there. I’m hoping he’ll get drunk and buy me a Ferrari or something. - MC
Well if I was most of the way to being filthy rich, I guess I would focus a lot of time and money into getting laid in a princely fashion also. (Not that I don’t now, it just doesn’t work without a lot of moolah.)
The Kama Sutra is a Sanskrit text (Kama: desire, love; Sutra: lit. “thread”, collection of aphorisms). It was first translated into the English by noted adventurer, linguist, raconteur, and superspy Sir Richard Burton during the heyday of the Victorian Age. Since then its salacious nature has inspired many versions and editions.
It’s a guidebook that describes the various ways of enjoying union with a partner, whether that be sitting and talking, making out, or “doing the deed”. It’s certainly interesting though on the clinical side. It does not discuss interior design, as I recall.
A local gourmet-furniture boutique in my area advertised what they called a “Kama Sutra chair”; it looked like a chaise-style, wood Lay-z-boy type of chair. Apparently it’s intended for long-as-possible-term woman-on-top straddling. Sounds great, but not true to Classical India’s Gupta or Maurya periods.
I’d stick with a big phat bed with ornate posts, and a fireplace in the bedroom with a deep-dish Persian capet and large pillows to boot.
Sanibel–not including the adult titles, there is a serious film inspired by the Kama Sutra:
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)
Directed by Mira Nair
Writing credits
Helena Kriel
Mira Nair
From Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide.
Frankly erotic, spirited feminist saga of sex and sexual politics in 16th-century feudal India, telling the story of Maya (Varma), an independent-minded servant who seduces a young king. He becomes obsessed with her, but weds a princess whom he does not love. A pointed portrait of a woman who is unwilling to accept a woman’s ``destiny’’ of being her father’s property one day and her husband’s property the next. Rated for video as NC-17, and as R (113m. ).
It’s a sex manual. It shows about 100 different sexual positions. But the author stretches it at the end. The 67th position and the 83rd position are the same except that you have to do it with your eyes crossed.
You should be able to find the Kama Sutra book at your local book store. They have the large manual and also a pocket size book. Good for road trips I guess!
Oh, but it’s so much more than a sex manual! If you get the full version (mine is hardcover, about 2 1/2 inches thick), you get not only the chapter on lovemaking techniques, but also the chapters on how to have affairs, how to attract and win over a spouse, and an appendix on love-related black magic. My favorite bit of advice is to a man after he’s married a rather young bride: in order not to scare her off from the marriage bed, he should bring her little dolls and toys. For a somewhat older bride, the advice is to bring jewels and pretty ornaments. All this from a section entitled “How to Relax the Girl”.
As to the OP, the bedchamber is sparsely decorated, with a bed or chaise of some description draped in rich fabrics, and really not much else. Clothes and toiletries are kept in another room. The only other things actually in the bedchamber would be a container with betel and something to spit it into, and maybe some incense.
missdavis102,
I think I read that one too. Wasn’t that the one where they give instructions on how to woo a girl. Like getting a ‘gobetween’ which is someone who knows the girl you like to tell her you like her too?
That’s where I got it from. Flashman said with “fingers crossed”. I tried it but it didn’t feel any different. Try it with eyes crossed, about 3 minutes later you’ll get a lightheaded feeling. Works for me!
MC, your friend might have seen carvings of the Kama Sutra, which, loosely taken, are plentiful in India and Nepal. Entire walls and celings are covered with carvings of gods and humans copulating in the wildest manners. In effect there are no walls and ceilings, just carvings. Strictly speaking the Kama Sutra is a book, but it can be taken to mean any Indian art concerning the techniques of making love.
If I remember correctly, a character in Robert Heinlein’s “Job: A Comedy Of Justice” has a villa that is built very much like the description above (I think the character in question is the Devil). (Read this book, it is well worth it).
The movie “Kama Sutra” is worthless tripe. It does feature three women of unbelievable beauty, but I sat through the whole thing and I concluded the following:
ABE’S REVIEW OF KAMA SUTRA
Screen version of an average Harlequin Romance that takes place 400 years ago in a stunningly beautiful setting (OK, so some of the visuals are very good). The lead actresses are in fact quite good, although the male roles could have been filled by more manly men. Two hours of wasted time. The viewer gains no insight into any character, and receives no information about feudal India whatsoever. The sex scenes are lame in their assumed superiority. This is a chick-flick romance with some occasional nudity thrown in to attract a male audience.
Well, I told you I didn’t like it. Good visuals though.
Abe
IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
–Ambrose Bierce
To get back to the origin of the thread, I have seen an illustrated version of the Kama Sutra that had drawing supposedly showing how to do certain positions. In these drawings you can see how the (bed)room is decorated, so i know what your friend meant by his statement. The book was a large paperback and I believe it was called “The Illustrated Kama Sutra” it had a dark aqua colored cover (none of this may help you locate it, but I try). I believe that you could look for older Indian (the country of course not the race) designs on the web and that would give you the same basic idea. By the way, all I can say after seeing those pics is DAMN Indian women are very flexible !
What is the best version/copy of Kama Sutra currently available at bookstores? I was browsing online but I cannot tell the difference between the different K.S. books available.