Vatsyayana | Sage | Eroticist | World's first voyeur?

Wow! This is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be! And I mean that quite literally! Now I know that puns are quite an expected occurrence, especially when one talks about humanity's oldest manual on sexuality, 'The Kama Sutra'. 

While we have often contemplated the manual itself, few of us actually know much about the auteur of this magnificent tome. While we know that Vatsyayana was a sage, few facts about him as a person survive. After all, he was but a sage, and no erections (sorry I couldn't help myself) to his name have survived the ravages of time. 

While Wikipedia, the modern equivalent of the ancient world's library of Taxila or Alexandria, has but a few measly  paragraphs to this genius, there are hundreds of websites that offer a closer look at his handiwork (I seriously need to stop this!) 

The real question still remains, Who was Vatsyayana? What prompted him to do what he did? And by the modern definition of a voyeur, was he the first ever? 

Courtesy Wikipedia. 

"Vātsyāyana is the name of a Hindu philosopher in the Vedic tradition who is believed to have lived during time of the Gupta Empire (4th to 6th centuries CE) in India. His name appears as the author of the Kama Sutra." 

While this statement remains unverified, a healthy number of people believe that Vatsyayana, hid himself in the back rooms of brothels and observed courtesans/commercial sex workers servicing their customers. It was based on these observations that he was supposed to have sketched the diagrams that his treatise ultimately became famous for. By that definition, Vatsyayana was definitely the world's first voyeur...but there are a few 'facts' here that just don't add up. 

~ Vatsyayana was a Brahman, the most pure of the 4 Aryan castes, intermingling with courtesans would have been strictly frowned upon

~ Being a sage did not mean that Vatsyayana himself wasn't married. There was no known taboo on sages being family men 

~ By definition, a voyeur observes the sexual action of others for his own vicarious pleasure. So Vatsyayana's observations were recorded in a manner that to date has been commended for its almost sterile, scientific detached-ness...  

Shall we take a closer look at the facts then...the Hindu way of life lists 4 stages, Dharma (the acquisition of religious merit, meaning, depth to one's life), Artha (the acquisition of wealth, material possessions), Kama (love, marriage, sensual gratification) and Moksha (salvation). None of these stages are complete without the other. Therefore Kama is a vital component of a well balanced human life. Fodder for thought indeed! 

While paeans have been dedicated to the other three, Kama, especially in the way of the Indian way of life today, remains a rather looked down upon aspect. Dirty, sordid, almost forbidden. The point is though that ancient Indian metaphysics looked upon Kama, as a spiritual and not a physical aspect of human life. 

Unfortunately somehow, the Kamasutra's myriad, graphical depictions of sexual positions have been reproduced (damn!) a million times over, precious little has been said about the parts that deal with the morality of sexuality, the acquisition of a partner, the ways a man should treat and respect a woman, etc. (See bibliography, #2.)

In a world that places undue importance on sex and salaciousness, the Kama Sutra and its auteur stand for a measure of temperance. Not just as a handbook for a better sexual life, but a blueprint for a more balanced life all round.    

Please note: This post is a work of research, creative writing, speculation and interpretative writing on the part of its author. The author takes no responsibility for the veracity of the content sources from which certain sections of this post have been culled, and this post must therefore, in no way, shape or form be used as material in research of any nature.

Bibliography | Sources 

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%81tsy%C4%81yana

2. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama101.htm#fn_0 : The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, tr. by Richard Burton, [1883], at sacred-texts.com

3. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kamaint.htm : The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, tr. by Richard Burton, [1883], at sacred-texts.com