India

Hinduism, the religion of India for most of its history, concentrates on an individual’s cycle of birth and rebirth, or karma. Karma involves a belief that a person’s unjust deeds in this life are punished by suffering in a future life, and suffering in this life is undoubtedly punishment for wrongs committed in previous incarnations. The goal, then, is to live a just life now to avoid suffering in the future. One of the responsibilities in this life is to marry and procreate, and because sex is an important part of those responsibilities, it was generally viewed as a positive pur­suit, and even a source of power and magic.

There are legends about great women rulers early in India’s history, and women had important roles in ceremonies and sacrifices. Still, India’s social system, like others we have mentioned, was basically patriarchal (pay-TREE-arc-al), and Indian writers (again, mostly male) shared many of the negative views of women that were characteristic of other civilizations. Being born a woman was seen as a punishment for sins committed in previous lives. In fact, murdering a woman was not seen as a particularly serious crime, and female infanticide (in — FAN-tis-side) was not uncommon (V. L. Bullough, 1973).

By about the 3rd or 4th century B. C., the first and most famous of India’s sex manuals, the Kamasutra (CAH-mah-SUH-trah), appeared. India is justifiably famous for this amazing book. The Kamasutra dis­cusses not just sex but also the nature of love, how to make a good home and family, and moral guidance in sex and love. The Kamasutra

 

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is obsessive about naming and classifying things. In fact, the Kamasutra categorizes men by the size of their penis (hare, bull, or horse man) and women by the size of their vagina (deer, mare, or cow-elephant woman). A good match in genital size was preferred, but barring that, a tight fit was better than a loose one (Tannahill, 1980). The Kamasutra recommends that women learn how to please their husbands, and it provides instruc­tions on sexual techniques and illustrations of many sexual positions, some of which are virtually impossible for anyone who cannot twist his or her body like a pretzel. The Kamasutra proposes that intercourse should be a passionate activity that includes scratching, biting, and blows to the back, accompanied by a variety of animal noises (the book details eight kinds of nail marks and eight different animal sounds).

Question: Wasn’t the original Kamasutra pretty sexist? I don’t un­derstand how it could still be popular today when we work so hard for equality.

Although the original Kamasutra has been criticized for its heterosex­ist and oppositional male and female power imbalances, there have been several translations over time. Today we understand that the Kamasutra may have a more balanced power structure than originally thought and also provides women more power to say no (Kong, 2004). Perhaps these new understandings account for the Kamasutra’s continued popularity today.

In India, marriage was an economic and religious obligation; families tried to arrange good marriages by betrothing their children at younger and younger ages, though they did not live with or have sex with their future spouses until after puberty. Because childbear­ing began so young, Indian women were still in the prime of their lives when their chil­dren were grown, and they were often able to assert themselves in the household over el­derly husbands. However, when a husband died, his wife was forbidden to remarry, and she had to live simply, wear plain clothes, and sleep on the ground. She was to devote her days to prayer and rituals that ensured her remarriage to the same husband in a future life. Many women chose (or were forced to) end their lives as widows by the ritual act of sati, which consisted of a woman throwing herself on her husband’s burning funeral pyre to die.