The Kama Sutra
Part VII: On The Means of Attracting Others to One's Self
Chapter I - On Personal Adornment; On Subjugating the Hearts of Others; and On Tonic Medicines
WHEN a person fails to obtain the object of his desires by any of the ways previously related,
he should then have recourse to other ways of attracting others to himself.
Now good looks, good qualities, youth, and liberality are the chief and most natural means of making a person agreeable
in the eyes of others. But in the absence of these a man or a woman must have resort to artificial means, or to art,
and the following are some recipes that may be found useful.
....
When a female attendant arrives at the age of puberty, her master should keep her secluded,
and when men ardently desire her on account of her seclusion, and on account of the difficulty of approaching her,
he should then bestow her hand on such a person as may endow her with wealth and happiness.
This is a means of increasing the loveliness of a person in the eyes of others.
In the same way, when the daughter of a courtesan arrives at the age of puberty,
the mother should get together a lot of young men of the same age, disposition, and knowledge as her daughter,
and tell them that she would give her in marriage to the person who would give her presents of a particular kind.
After this the daughter should be kept in seclusion as far as possible,
and the mother should give her in marriage to the man who may be ready to give her the presents agreed upon.
If the mother is unable to get so much out of the man,
she should show some of her own things as having been given to the daughter by the bridegroom.
Or the mother may allow her daughter to be married to the man privately, as if she was ignorant of the whole affair,
and then pretending that it has come to her knowledge, she may give her consent to the union.
The daughter, too, should make herself attractive to the sons of wealthy citizens, unknown to her mother,
and make them attached to her, and for this purpose should meet them at the time of learning to sing,
and in places where music is played, and at the houses of other people, and then request her mother,
through a female friend, or servant, to be allowed to unite herself to the man who is most agreeable to her.
When the daughter of a courtesan is thus given to a man, the ties of marriage should be observed for one year,
and after that she may do what she likes. But even after the end of the year, when otherwise engaged,
if she should be now and then invited by her first husband to come and see him, she should put aside her present gain,
and go to him for the night.
Such is the mode of temporary marriage among courtesans, and of increasing their loveliness,
and their value in the eyes of others.
What has been said about them should also be understood to apply to the daughters of dancing women,
whose mothers should give them only to such persons as are likely to become useful to them in various ways.
Thus end the ways of making oneself lovely in the eyes of others.
If a man, after anointing his lingam with a mixture of the powders of the white thorn apple, the long pepper and,
the black pepper, and honey, engages in sexual union with a woman, he makes her subject to his will.
....
Thus end the ways of subjugating others to one's own will.
Now the means of increasing sexual vigour are as follows:
If ghee [clarified butter], honey, sugar and liquorice in equal quantities, the juice of the fennel plant,
and milk are mixed together, this nectar-like composition is said to be holy, and provocative of sexual vigour,
a preservative of life, and sweet to the taste.
The drinking of a paste composed of the asparagus racemosus [asparagus root, or shatavari],
the shvadaushtra plant [small caltrops], the guduchi plant, the long pepper, and liquorice,
boiled in milk, honey, and ghee, in the spring, is said to have the same effect as the above.
Drinking boiled ghee, or clarified butter, in the morning during the spring season,
is said to be beneficial to health and strength and agreeable to the taste.
If the powder of the seed of the shvadaushtra plant [small caltrops] and the flower of barley
are mixed together in equal parts, and a portion of it, i.e. two palas in weight,
is eaten every morning on getting up, it has the same effect as the preceding recipe.
There are also verses on the subject as follows:
'The means of producing love and sexual vigour should be learnt from the science of medicine, from the Vedas,
from those who are learned in the arts of magic, and from confidential relatives.
No means should be tried which are doubtful in their effects, which are likely to cause injury to the body,
which involve the death of animals, and which bring us in contact with impure things.
Such means should only be used as are holy, acknowledged to be good, and approved of by Brahmans, and friends.'
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