and sciences contained in Dharma and Artha. Even young girls should study marriage along with
its arts and sciences before marriage, and after it they should continue to do so with the consent
of their husbands. Here some learned men object, and say that females, not being allowed to
study any science, should not study the marriage.
We are of opinion that this objection does not hold good, for women already know the practice of
Marriage, and that practice is derived from the Marriage, or the science of Kama itself. Moreover,
it is not only in this but in many other cases that, though the practice of a science is known to all,
only a few persons are acquainted with the rules and laws on which the science is based. Thus
the Sacrificers, though ignorant of grammar, make use of appropriate words when addressing the
different Deities, and do not know how these words are framed. Again, persons do the duties
required of them on auspicious days, which are fixed by astrology, though they are not
acquainted with the science of astrology. In a like manner riders of horses and elephants train
these animals without knowing the science of training animals, but from practice only. And
similarly the people of the most distant provinces obey the laws of the kingdom from practice, and
because there is a king over them, and without further reason. And from experience we find
that some women, such as daughters of princes and their ministers, and public women, are
actually versed in the Marriage.
A female, therefore, should learn the Marriage, or at least a part of it, by studying its practice from
some confidential friend. She should study alone in private the sixty-four practices that form a part
of the Kama Shastra. Her teacher should be one of the following persons: the daughter of a nurse
brought up with her and already married, or a female friend who can be trusted in everything, or
the sister of her mother (i.e. her aunt), or an old female servant, or a female beggar who may
have formerly lived in the family, or her own sister who can always be trusted. The following are
the arts to be studied, together with the Marriage:
Singing
Playing on musical instruments
Dancing
Union of dancing, singing, and playing instrumental music
Writing and drawing
Tattooing
Arraying and adorning an idol with rice and flowers
Spreading and arranging beds or couches of flowers, or flowers upon the
ground
Coloring the teeth, garments, hair, nails and bodies, i.e. staining, dyeing,
Coloring and painting the same
Fixing stained glass into a floor
The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining
Playing on musical glasses filled with water
Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs
Picture making, trimming and decorating
Stringing of rosaries, necklaces, garlands and wreaths
Binding of turbans and chaplets, and making crests and top-knots of flowers
Scenic representations, stage playing Art of making ear ornaments Art of
preparing perfumes and odors
Proper disposition of jewels and decorations and adornment in dress
Magic or sorcery
Quickness of hand or manual skill
Culinary art, i.e. cooking and cookery
Making lemonades, sherbets, acidulated drinks, and spirituous extracts with
proper flavour and colour
Tailor's work and sewing
Making parrots, flowers, tufts, tassels, bunches, bosses, knobs, etc., out of
yarn or thread
Solution of riddles, enigmas, covert speeches, verbal puzzles and enigmatical
questions
A game, which consisted in repeating verses, and as one person finished,
another person had to commence at once, repeating another verse, beginning
with the same letter with which the last speaker's verse ended, whoever
failed to repeat was considered to have lost, and to be subject to pay a forfeit
or stake of some kind
The art of mimicry or imitation
Reading, including chanting and intoning
Study of sentences difficult to pronounce. It is played as a game chiefly by
women, and children and consists of a difficult sentence being given, and
when repeated quickly, the words are often transposed or badly pronounced
Practice with sword, single stick, quarter staff and bow and arrow
Drawing inferences, reasoning or inferring
Carpentry, or the work of a carpenter
Architecture, or the art of building
Knowledge about gold and silver coins, and jewels and gems
Chemistry and mineralogy
Colouring jewels, gems and beads
Knowledge of mines and quarries
Gardening; knowledge of treating the diseases of trees and plants, of
nourishing them, and determining their ages
Art of cock fighting, quail fighting and ram fighting
Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak
Art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with
unguents and perfumes and braiding it
The art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a
peculiar way
The art of speaking by changing the forms of words. It is of various kinds.
Some speak by changing the beginning and end of words, others by adding
unnecessary letters between every syllable of a word, and so on
Knowledge of language and of the vernacular dialects
Art of making flower carriages
Art of framing mystical diagrams, of addressing spells and charms, and
binding armlets
Mental exercises, such as completing stanzas or verses on receiving a part of
them; or supplying one, two or three lines when the remaining lines are given
indiscriminately from different verses, so as to make the whole an entire
verse with regard to its meaning; or arranging the words of a verse written
irregularly by separating the vowels from the consonants, or leaving them out
altogether; or putting into verse or prose sentences represented by signs or
symbols. There are many other such exercises.
Composing poems
Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies
Knowledge of ways of changing and disguising the appearance of persons
Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making
cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good
Various ways of gambling
Art of obtaining possession of the property of others by means of muntras or
incantations
Skill in youthful sports
Knowledge of the rules of society, and of how to pay respect and compliments
to others
Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, etc.
Knowledge of gymnastics
Art of knowing the character of a man from his features
Knowledge of scanning or constructing verses
Arithmetical recreations
Making artificial flowers
Making figures and images in clay
A woman being learned in the above arts, can make her husband favourable to her, And in the
same manner, if a wife becomes separated from her husband, and falls into distress, she can
support herself easily, even in a foreign country, by means of her knowledge of these arts.
Even the bare knowledge of them gives attractiveness to a woman, though the practice of them
may be only possible or otherwise according to the circumstances of each case. A man who is
versed in these arts, who is loquacious and acquainted with the arts of gallantry, gains very soon
the hearts of women, even though he is only acquainted with them for a short time.
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