The world's oldest and most widely read guide to the pleasures and techniquesof
sex, the Kama Sutra was compiled in the fourth century A.D. by aBrahmin and
religious scholar named Vatsyayana, who worked from texts dating backto the
fourth century B.C. Until the present, the only English translation ofthis Hindu
love classic was that of the famous English explorer Sir RichardBurton,
published in 1883. Unlike Burton's version, Alain Danielou's newtranslation
preserves the numbered verse divisions of the original and includestwo essential
commentaries: the Jayamangala commentary, written inSanskrit by Yashodhara
during the Middle Ages, and a modern Hindi commentary byDevadatta Shastri.
Whereas Burton's Victorian reluctance to translate certainterms obscured