Sir Richard Francis Burton

The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana Sir Richard Francis Burton

Book Excerpt: ...e of love, and appears to have borrowed largely from Vatsyayana on the subject. Now Virahamihira is said to have lived during the sixth century A. D., and as Vatsya must have written his works previously, therefore not earlier than the first century A. D., and not later than the sixth century A. D., must be considered as the approximate date of his existence. On the text of the 'Aphorisms on Love', by Vatsyayana, only two commentaries have been found. One called 'Jayamangla' or 'Sutrabashya', and the other 'Sutra vritti'. The date of the 'Jayamangla' is fixed between the tenth and thirteenth century A. D., because while treating of the sixty-four arts an example is taken from the 'Kavyaprakasha' which was written about the tenth century A. D. Again, the copy of the commentary procured was evidently a transcript of a manuscript which once had a place in the library of a Chaulukyan king named Vishaladeva, a fact elicited from the following sentence at the end of it.'Here ends the part relating to the...