Love in Ancient India by M. L. Varadpande

Author:M. L. Varadpande [abc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: none
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2011-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

ART oF LOVE 69

to sexual intercourse in different postures, maithuna. The early simple mithunas of second to first century BC are mostly seen on Buddhist monuments, such as those at Bharhut and Karle, before becoming intimate gradually. At the beginning of sixth century, the sculptures are shown indulging in sexual acts. The tendency reached its peak around the tenth to the thirteenth century, as seen in the temples at Bhubaneswar, Puri, Konark and Khajuraho.

And what a variety of intimate postures, attitudes, compositions — you name them, imagine them, they are there for you to see. You see simple or complex one-man-one-woman coitus, a couple performing gymnastic feats while enjoying sex, orgies, oral sex, auto-erotic, music and dance as adjuncts to the sexual act. Even ascetics are shown enjoying sex with female partners in various postures.

Here you may ask, why was there so much, so varied depiction of sex on religious monuments and temples, in the medieval period?

Some scholars attribute this to the influence of tantric cults. Though originating in the distant past, tantric cults started making their presence felt from the fifth century AD. A number of them included maithuna along with drinking of wine, eating of fish and flesh as the major ingredients of their sadhana. They claimed that maithuna led the sadhaka to liberation.

Grihyasamaja Tantra propounds a theory that sadhana which is difficult, painful and bound by severe rules and regulations can lead the sadhaka nowhere. One can attain siddhi by enjoying all kinds of sensuous pleasures. True knowledge is acquired by such enjoyment, the chief among them being intercourse with a woman, leading to supreme bliss — strisukham param.

Shaktas declare maithuna as the parama tatva or the ultimate principle. Through maithuna, one can attain supreme knowledge — brahmajnana. Enjoyment of sensual pleasure is yoga itself — bhoga yogayate sakshat. Mahanirvana Tantra says that worship without the panchatatvas — madya, mamsa, matsya, mudra and maithuna — is of no use.

Though the tantras stressed the importance of copulation, they did not contain the prescription of sexual postures. The mudra of

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