Nor is it a small merit to the author, that he has been able to say so much of novelty and of interest upon the congress of the sexes, a subject which has been worked since the remotest ages, which is supposed to have been exhausted long ago, and yet which no one has treated as it is treated in this treatise. The originality is everywhere mixed up, it is true, with a peculiar quaintness, resulting from the language and from the peculiarities of Hindu thought, yet it is not the less original. Nothing can be more characteristic of the Indian than this labored and mechanical style of love; when kisses are divided into so many kinds; when there are rules for patting with the palm and the back of the hand, and regulations for the several expirations of breath. Regarded in this light, the book becomes an ethnological treasure, which tells us as much of Hindu human nature as the ?Thousand Nights and a Night? of Arab manners and customs in the cinquecento.

The author informs us that the treatise was composed by the Arch-poet Kalyána Malla (himself), and unfortunately we know little of him. A biography of the poets, the Kavi-Charika, states that he was a native of Kalinga, by caste a Brahman, who flourished during the reign of Anangabhima, alias Ladadiva, the King of that country; and an inscription in the Sanctuary of Jagannath proves that the Rajah built a temple in the Shaka, or year of Shalivana, 1094 (1172 A.D.) On the other hand all MSS. of the Ananga-Ranga have a verse distinctly stating that the author Kalyána Malla, wrote the book for the amusement of Ladkhan Rajah, son of Ahmed, of the Lodi House. Hence the suggestion that the patron was Ahmad Chan, Subahdár or Viceroy of Gujarat (Guzerat) whom, with Eastern flattery and exaggeration, the poet crowns King of the Realm. This Officer was a servant of the Lodi or Pathán dynasty, who according to Elphinstone appointed many of their kinsmen to high office. Three Lodi kings (Bahlúl, Sikandar and Abrahim, who ruled between A.D. 1450 and 1526) immediately preceded the Taymur house in the person of Baber Shah. The work, which is not written in classical style and belongs to late Sanskrit literature, is an analysis of and a compilation from treatises of much earlier date, such as the Káma Sutra of Vatsyáyana (for which see Chapter 6) the Ratirahasya, the Panchasáyaka, the Smarapradipa, the Ratimanjari and, to quote no other, the Mánasolása or Abhilashitachintamani-the ?Description of the King?s Diversion,? le Roi s?amuse.

The treatise, originally in Sanskrit, has been translated into every language of the East which boasts a literature, however humble. In Sanskrit and Prakrit (Marathi, Gujarati, Bengáli, etc.) it is called ?Ananga-Ranga,? Stage or form of the Bodiless one, Káma Deva (Kámadeva), the Hindu Cupid who was reduced to ashes by the fiery eye of Shiva and presently restored to life. The legend runs thus in Moore?s ?Hindu Pantheon:?- ?Mahadeva, i.e. Shiva, and Parvati his wife, playing with dice at the game of Chaturanga, disputed and parted in wrath; and severally performing rigid acts of devotion to the Supreme Being, kindled thereby such vehement fires as threatened a general conflagration. The Devas, in great alarm, hastened to Brahma, who led them to Mahadeva and supplicated him to recall his consort; but the wrathful god answered, that she must return to him of her own free choice. They accordingly deputed Ganga, the river-goddess, who prevailed on Parvati to return to her husband, on the condition that his love for her should be restored. The celestial mediators then employed Kámadeva, who wounded Shiva with one of his flowery arrows, but the angry deity reduced the God of Love to ashes. Parvati, soon after presenting herself before Shiva in the semblance of a Kerati, or daughter of a mountaineer, and seeing him enamored of her, assumed her own shape and effected a re-union. The relenting Shiva consoled the afflicted Rati, the widow of Káma, by assuring her that she should rejoin her husband, when she should be born again in the form of Pradyamna, son of Krishna, and put Sambará Asura to death. This favorable prediction was in due time accomplished, and Pradyamna was seized by the demon Sambará, who placed him in a chest and threw it into the sea. The chest was swallowed by a large fish, which was caught and carried to the palace of the giant, where the unfortunate Rati had been compelled to perform manual service; it fell to her lot to open the fish, and finding the chest and its contents, she nursed the infant in private, and educated him until he had sufficient strength to destroy the malignant Sambará. He had before considered Rati as his mother; but their minds being now irradiated, the prophetic promise of Mahadeva was remembered, and the god of Love was re-united to the goddess of Pleasure.?

In Arabic, Hindustani and the Moslem dialects, the Ananga-Ranga becomes Lizzat al-Nisá, or the Pleasure of Women; and it appears with little change in Persian and Turkish. Generally it is known in India as the Kamá Shástra, the Scripture of Káma or Lila Shástra, the Scripture of Play or amorous Sport-to paizein. The vulgar call it ?Koka Pandit,? from the supposed author, concerning whom the following tale is told. A woman who was burning with love and could find none to satisfy her inordinate desires, threw off her clothes and swore she would wander the world naked till she met with her match. In this condition she entered the levee-hall of the Rajah upon whom Koka Pandit was attending; and, when asked if she were not ashamed of herself, looked insolently at the crowd of courtiers around her and scornfully declared that there was not a man in the room. The King and his company were sore abashed; but the Sage joining his hands, applied with due humility for royal permission to tame the shrew. He then led her home and worked so persuasively that well-nigh fainting from fatigue and from repeated orgasms she cried for quarter. Thereupon the virile Pandit inserted gold pins into her arms and legs; and, leading her before his Rajah, made her confess her defeat and solemnly veil herself in the presence. The Rajah was, as might be expected, anxious to learn how the victory had been won, and commanded Koka Pandit to tell his tale, and to add much useful knowledge on the subject of coition. In popular pictures the Sage appears sitting before and lecturing the Rajah who duly throned and shaded by the Chatri, or royal canopy, with his harem fanning him and forming tail, lends an attentive ear to the words of wisdom.

In these days the Ananga-Ranga enjoys deserved celebrity. Lithographed copies have been printed by hundreds of thousands, and the book is in the hands of both sexes and all ages throughout the nearer East, and possibly it may extend to China and Japan. It has become a part of natural life, and even the ?Fables of Pilpay,? to use a neutral term for a volume whose names are manifold, has not a wider circulation. The Káma Sutra of Vatsyáyana, concerning which more presently, and Ananga-Ranga must be regarded as two valuable and interesting works on Social Science: they bear repeated readings and seem ever to present a something of novelty. Eastern students often apply to them the well-known lines of Hafiz:-

Oh songster sweet, begin the lay,
Ever fresh and ever gay;
For us once more the tale renew,
Ever old but ever new.

It was at first our intention, after rendering the ?Káma Shástra? from Sanskrit into English, to dress it up in Latin, that it might not fall into the hands of the vulgar. But further considerations satisfied us that it contains nothing essentially immoral, and much matter deserving of more consideration than it receives at present. The generation which prints and reads literal English translations of the debauched Petronius Arbiter, and the witty indecencies of Rabelais, can hardly be prudish enough to complain of the devout and highly moral Kalyána Malla. At least, so think
THE TRANSLATORS.
---------- P.S. - In the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the translation appears under the generic name of ?Káma-Shástra,? which we first adopted, and the reader is told that only four copies exist for reasons best known to the printer. This is so far true that the limited supply has hitherto prevented the public deriving any benefit from our labors. We now take advantage of an offer made by a well-known house in Cosmopoli, and produce a reprint for PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY, with many additions and emendations.