The original set of texts that became known as Kama Sutra 'were actually about everything from urban living to statecraft, from perfumes to gardens,' Mitra says. ' Kama Sutra is a book of philosophy on ethics and aesthetics, never just an ancient text on sexual positions and sexual pleasure.' and other parts of the western world,' says Durba Mitra, PhD, an assistant professor of women, gender, and sexuality at Harvard University, and author of Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought. 'The Kama Sutra has been quite distorted in how it has circulated in translation in the U.S.
The Kama Sutra, written by Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, has developed a reputation as the ultimate guidebook to what seems like every sex position ever-but the ancient Sanskrit text is so much more than a reference book for intricate genital gymnastics.