An Area of Darkness by V.S. Naipaul

Author:V.S. Naipaul [Naipaul, V.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-77654-9
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

*Luxury, with Indians, and especially Hindus, always seems contrived and strenuous. No people are so little interested in interiors. This lack of interest appears to be historical. The Kama Sutra, after laying down that the man of fashion ‘should reside where he has a good chance of earning riches but should for preference select a city, a metropolis or a big or small town’, prescribes the furnishings of a drawing-room: ‘This outer room should contain a bed, richly mattressed, and somewhat depressed in the middle. It should have pillows at the head and the bottom and should be covered with a perfectly white clean sheet. Near this bed there should be a small couch on which the sexual act should be performed so as not to soil the bed. Over the head of the bed there should be fixed on the wall a lotus-shaped bracket on which a coloured portrait or an image of one’s favourite deity should be placed. Beneath this bracket should be placed a small table, one cubit in breadth, set against the wall. On this table the following articles, required for the night’s enjoyments, should be arranged: balms and perfumed unguents, garlands, coloured waxen vessels, pots for holding perfumes, pomegranate rinds and prepared betels. There should be a spittoon on the floor near the bed; a lute, a drawing slab, a pot with colours and brushes, a few books and wreaths of flowers, too, hung from elephants’ tusks let into the wall. Near the bed upon the floor should be placed a circular chair with a back for resting the head on. Boards for the games of dice and chess should be placed against the wall. In a gallery outside the room cages for pet birds should be hung from ivory tusks fixed into the wall.’ (Translated by B. N. Basu.)

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