Vatsyayana
Sex is taboo in India today because of British colonisers who destroyed our true heritage - but did you know we invented the world’s first formal sex education curriculum?
Meet Vātsyāyana, a Hindu religious sage & philosopher from the 3rd or 4th century CE, who lived in North India during the dawn of the Gupta Empire.
By then, India already had a tradition called Kāmaśāstra - the science of love, desire, and aesthetics.
But Vātsyāyana took all the earlier texts and wisdom, and distilled them into one no-nonsense, timeless guide: the Kāmasūtra.
Now, your parents & the media have probably made you believe that it’s some dirty “Fifty Shades of Grey” erotica with weird sex positions.
Vātsyāyana covers:
1. How to groom yourself, build charm, and meet people - because your dating apps clearly aren’t working.
2. How to flirt, build connection, do foreplay, and maintain passion in long-term relationships.
3. How to find the right life partner, marry wisely, and share responsibilities as husband and wife.
4. How to understand and fulfil your partner’s emotional and physical needs - something every guy should read because God knows our girls are massively unsatisfied.
5. Why people cheat, and how to handle betrayal maturely - not with violence.
And it’s deeply inclusive.
The Kāmasūtra openly discusses Tritīya Prakṛti - people of the third gender - validating homosexuality & diverse identities without judgement.
It explains how women can use toys for self-pleasure, normalises masturbation, and is so progressive that it’ll give all your conservative uncles & aunties a heart attack.
It even normalises prostitution with nuance and respect - a mindset so progressive for it’s time that centuries later, that we still treat it badly.
Also, the sex positions everyone jokes about? They actually make up less than 20% of the book - and even those are explained to enhance mutual pleasure, not just male satisfaction.
“But isn’t this against our Indian values & culture?”
No. Sanātana Dharma doesn’t condemn or shame sex like other religions.
Yes, celibacy & restraint is encouraged as an eventual goal but at the same time, it sees Kāma - healthy & natural desire - as one of the four legitimate goals of life, alongside Artha (wealth), Dharma (duty), and Moksha (liberation).
Only when this natural instinct turns into unhealthy addiction, obessions or selfishness does it become spiritually harmful.
The author himself has made it clear that it’s not a book to feed lust, but to help people fulfil their responsibilities towards their partners in relationships. That’s also a kind of Dharma.
It’s a tragedy that what was once taught to the youth as education is now banned from our schools & education system - leaving today’s generation uninformed, ashamed, and at risk of doing harm from ignorance.