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Updated: June 9, 2025
After further reference to the idea he adds, "I hope that you will enjoy it." A few days later Mr. Arbuthnot called on Mr. Payne. Mr. Payne did not "enjoy" the unfolding of the Kama Shastra scheme, he took no interest in it whatever; but, of course, he gave the information required as to cost of production; and both then and subsequently assisted in other matters of business. Moreover, to Mr.
A shaster or shastra, from the Sanskrit root ças, to govern, relates to discipline. Of those shastras and sutras we must frequently speak. In India and China some of those sutras are exponents, of schools of thought or opinion, or of views or methods of looking at things, rather than of organizations. In Japan these schools of philosophy, in certain instances, become sects with a formal history.
In India the book is known as the Kama Shastra or Lila Shastra, the Scripture of Play or Amorous Sport. The author says quaintly, "It is true that no joy in the world of mortals can compare with that derived from the knowledge of the Creator. Second, however, and subordinate only to his are the satisfaction and pleasure arising from the possession of a beautiful woman."
Vatsyayan and Kullianmull, indeed, though they poetized the pleasures of the flesh, would have been horrified could they have read the plays of Wycherley and Etheridge. The erotic books that Arbuthnot wished to be translated were the following all by Hindu poets more or less famous: Of these seven books two only were issued, namely the Kama Sutra and the Ananga Ranga or Lila Shastra.
It was about this time that Burton decided to make a new and lavishly annotated translation of The Scented Garden. To the Kama Shastra edition of 1886 we have already referred, and we shall deal fully with the whole subject in a later chapter. On October 6th the Burtons heard Mr. Heron Allen lecture on palmistry at Hampstead.
Instead of taking some particular book or books in the canon, shastra, or sutra, selection or collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk Chi-sha first mastered, and then digested the whole canon. Then selecting certain doctrines for emphasis he supported them by a wide range of quotation, professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of Gautama rather than those of his disciples.
There is a reference to this work in Burton's Vikram and the Vampire, where we read: "As regards the neutral state, that poet was not happy in his ideas who sang, 'Whene'er indifference appears, or scorn, Then, man, despair! then, hapless lover, mourn! for a man versed in the Lila Shastra can soon turn a woman's indifference into hate, which I have shown is as easily permuted to love."
It had such a powerful influence that it was called an intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book. This Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit kosa, a store, is eclectic, and contains nine chapters embodying the views of one of the schools, with selections from those of others. After long study they returned, bringing the Chinese translation of this shastra into Japan.
Still, every genuine and right-minded student regards it as a duty to keep books such as these, which are unsuited for the general public, under lock and key just as the medical man treats his books of plates and other reference volumes. Then again it is entirely a mistake to suppose that the works issued or contemplated by the Kama Shastra Society were all of them erotic.
Those who are the votaries of other Gods and worship them with faith even they, O Kaunteya, worship me alone, though not as the Shastra requires IX, 23. Whoever being devoted wishes in perfect faith to worship a particular form, of such a one I maintain the same faith unshaken, VII 21.
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