The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana by Sir Richard Francis Burton (phonics readers .txt) 📖
- Author: Sir Richard Francis Burton
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When a courtesan is kind, even at her own expense, to a man who is very stingy, or to a man proud of his looks, or to an ungrateful man skilled in gaining the hearts of others, without any good resulting from these connections to her in the end, this loss is called a loss of wealth not attended by any gain.
When a courtesan is kind to any such man as described above, but who in addition is a favourite of the king, and moreover cruel and powerful, without any good result in the end, and with a chance of her being turned away at any moment, this loss is called a loss of wealth attended by other losses.
In this way gains and losses, and attendant gains and losses in religious merit and pleasures may become known to the reader, and combinations of all of them may also be made.
Thus end the remarks on gains and losses, and attendant gains and losses.
In the next place we come to doubts, which are again of three kinds: doubts about wealth, doubts about religious merit, and doubts about pleasures.
The following are examples:
When a courtesan is not certain how much a man may give her, or spend upon her, this is called a doubt about wealth.
When a courtesan feels doubtful whether she is right in entirely abandoning a lover from whom she is unable to get money, she having taken all his wealth from him in the first instance, this doubt is called a doubt about religious merit.
When a courtesan is unable to get hold of a lover to her liking, and is uncertain whether she will derive any pleasure from a person surrounded by his family, or from a low person, this is called a doubt about pleasure.
When a courtesan is uncertain whether some powerful but low principled fellow would cause loss to her on account of her not being civil to him this is called a doubt about the loss of wealth.
When a courtesan feels doubtful whether she would lose religious merit by abandoning a man who is attached to her without giving him the slightest favour, and thereby causing him unhappiness in this world and the next, 1 this doubt is called a doubt about the loss of a religious merit.
When a courtesan is uncertain as to whether she might create disaffection by speaking out, and revealing her love and thus not get her desire satisfied, this is called a doubt about the loss of pleasure.
Thus end the remarks on doubts.
Mixed Doubts
The intercourse or connection with a stranger, whose disposition is unknown, and who may have been introduced by a lover, or by one who possessed authority, may be productive either of gain or loss, and therefore this is called a mixed doubt about the gain and loss of wealth.
When a courtesan is requested by a friend, or is impelled by pity to have intercourse with a learned Brahman, a religious student, a sacrificer, a devotee, or an ascetic who may have all fallen in love with her, and who may be consequently at the point of death, by doing this she might either gain or lose religious merit, and therefore this is called a mixed doubt about the gain and loss of religious merit.
If a courtesan relies solely upon the report of other people (i.e. hearsay) about a man, and goes to him without ascertaining herself whether he possesses good qualities or not, she may either gain or lose pleasure in proportion as he may be good or bad, and therefore this is called a mixed doubt about the gain and loss of pleasure.
Uddalika has described the gains and losses on both sides as follows:
If, when living with a lover, a courtesan gets both wealth and pleasure from him, it is called a gain on both sides.
When a courtesan lives with a lover at her own expense without getting any profit out of it, and the lover even takes back from her what he may have formerly given her, it is called a loss on both sides.
When a courtesan is uncertain whether a new acquaintance would become attached to her, and, moreover, if he became attached to her, whether he would give her anything, it is then called a doubt on both sides about gains.
When a courtesan is uncertain whether a former enemy, if made up by her at her own expense, would do her some injury on account of his grudge against her; or, if becoming attached to her, would take away angrily from her anything that he may have given to her, this is called a doubt on both sides about loss.
Babhravya has described the gains and losses on both sides as follows:
When a courtesan can get money from a man whom she may go to see, and also money from a man whom she may not go to see, this is called a gain on both sides.
When a courtesan has to incur further expense if she goes to see a man, and yet runs the risk of incurring an irremediable loss if she does not go to see him, this is called a loss on both sides.
When a courtesan is uncertain whether a particular man would give her anything on her going to see him, without incurring expense on her part or whether on her neglecting him another man would give her something, this is called a doubt on both sides about gain.
When a courtesan is uncertain whether, on going at her own expense to see an old enemy, he would take back from her what he may have given her, or whether by her not going to see him he would cause some disaster to fall upon her, this is called a doubt on both sides about loss.
By combining the above, the following six kinds of mixed results are produced:
Gain on one side, and loss on the other
Gain on one side, and doubt of gain on the other
Gain on one side, and doubt of loss on the other
Loss on one side, and doubt of gain on the other
Doubt of gain on one side, and doubt of loss on the other
Doubt of loss on one side, and loss on the other
A courtesan, having considered all the above things and taken counsel with her friends, should act so as to acquire gain, the chances of great gain, and the warding off of any great disaster. Religious merit and pleasure should also be formed into separate combinations like those of wealth, and then all should be combined with each other, so as to form new combinations.
When a courtesan consorts with men she should cause each of them to give her money as well as pleasure. At particular times, such as the Spring Festivals, etc., she should make her mother announce to the various men, that on a certain day her daughter would remain with the man who would gratify such and such a desire of hers.
When young men approach her with delight, she should think of what she may accomplish through them.
The combination of gains and losses on all sides are gain on one side, and loss on all others; loss on one side and gain on all others; gain on all sides, loss on all sides.
A courtesan should also consider doubts about gain and doubts about loss with reference both to wealth, religious merit, and pleasure.
Thus ends the consideration of gain, loss, attendant gains, attendant losses, and doubts.
The different kinds of courtesans are:
A bawd
A female attendant
An unchaste woman
A dancing girl
A female artisan
A woman who has left her family
A woman living on her beauty
And, finally, a regular courtesan
All the above kinds of courtesans are acquainted with various kinds of men, and should consider the ways of getting money from them of pleasing them, of separating themselves from them, and of reuniting with them. They should also take into consideration particular gains and losses, attendant gains and losses, and doubts in accordance with their several conditions.
Thus end the considerations of courtesans.
There are also two verses on the subject as follows:
‘Men want pleasure, while women want money, and therefore this part, which treats of the means of gaining wealth, should be studied.’
‘There are some women who seek for love, and there are others who seek for money; for the former the ways of love are told in previous portions of this work, while the ways of getting money, as practised by courtesans, are described in this part.
Footnotes
1 The souls of men who die with their desires unfulfilled are said to go to the world of the Manes, and not direct to the Supreme Spirit.
ON PERSONAL ADORNMENT; ON SUBJUGATING THE HEARTS OF OTHERS; AND ON TONIC MEDICINES
WHEN a person fails to obtain the object of his desires by any of the ways previously related, he should then have recourse to other ways of attracting others to himself.
Now good looks, good qualities, youth, and liberality are the chief and most natural means of making a person agreeable in the eyes of others. But in the absence of these a man or a woman must have resort to artificial means, or to art, and the following are some recipes that may be found useful.
An ointment made of the tabernamontana coronaria, the costus speciosus or arabicus, and the flacourtia cataphracta, can be used as an unguent of adornment.
If a fine powder is made of the above plants, and applied to the wick of a lamp, which is made to burn with the oil of blue vitrol, the black pigment or lamp black produced therefrom, when applied to the eyelashes, has the effect of making a person look lovely.
The oil of the hogweed, the echites putescens, the sarina plant, the yellow amaranth, and the leaf of the nymphae, if applied to the body, has the same effect.
A black pigment from the same plants produces a similar effect.
By eating the powder of the nelumbrium speciosum, the blue lotus, and the mesna roxburghii, with ghee and honey, a man becomes lovely in the eyes of others.
The above things, together with the tabernamontana coronaria, and the xanthochymus pictorius, if used as an ointment, produce the same results.
If the bone of a peacock or of a hyena be covered with gold, and tied on the right hand, it makes a man lovely in the eyes of other people.
In the same way, if a bead, made of the seed of the jujube, or of the conch shell, be enchanted by the incantations mentioned in the Atharvana Veda, or by the incantations of those well skilled in the science of magic, and tied on the hand, it produces the same result as described above.
When a female attendant arrives at the age of puberty, her master should keep her secluded, and when men ardently desire her on account of her seclusion, and on account of the difficulty of approaching her, he should then bestow her hand on such a person as may endow her with wealth and happiness.
This is a means of increasing the loveliness of a person in the eyes of others.
In the same way, when the daughter of a courtesan arrives at the age of puberty, the mother should get together a lot of young men of the same age, disposition, and knowledge as her daughter, and tell them that she would give her in marriage to the person who would give her presents
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