Of all the treasures of learning that Europeans have acquired from the Far East, Kama Sutra is perhaps the best known, along with Yoga and Buddhism. The 20th century was a time of change in Europe and Northern America, a time when the gates of closed cultures opened to the wisdom of other peoples and reached out to the entire world.

Out of the bewildering multitude of ideas, practices, beliefs and taboos, the Europeans and Americans could not help but feel attracted to what was probably the slowest aspect of Western life to evolve: sex and foreign attitudes to pleasure. Kama Sutra is commonly thought of as an exotic help book on sexual satisfaction. Just like many other widely held beliefs, this one is completely wrong.

"Vatsyayana's Aphorisms on Love" ("Vatsyayana Kamasutram" is the complete name of the book) is actually a treaty made of 36 chapters and its aim is to provide a comprehensive guide to sex, marriage, courtship of married women, relationships with courtesans and, finally, improving one's chances through the use of herbs, substances, spells and sex toys.

As you can see, the purpose of this book was to become a definitive guide to what love and sex meant to the Indian society around the 4th century AD. The 36 chapters are each written by an expert of the issue and cover a wide range of issues, such as observations on the daily life of a citizen, how to kiss, sex positions, gaining the confidence of women, the means by which courtesans get money and personal adornment.

The study of sex and sexual positions makes up only about 20 percent of the book, although it's precisely the part that captured the attention of the prudish European and North American societies. Nevertheless, those who are truly interested in sex should read the entire book. Even though the mixture of betel nut and betel leaves has long been replaced by other gifts, people still want the same basic things from one another and the ancient theory is not much off the mark.

Aside from sex and love, the "Aphorisms on Love" is a very orthodox book, after the fashion of the society that spawned it. Its purpose is to teach the lover what to do to get the woman he desires while still protecting both his and hers good names and reputations. Reputation was extremely important in the ancient world and people who forfeited it for such flimsy a thing as sex was considered to be frivolous persons, not worthy of the esteem of others.

Vatsyayana himself, a celibate scholar, believed that sex was not bad in itself, but doing it was certainly frivolous and sinful. Although this may sound very unlikely, at the bottom Kama Sutra is somewhat akin to Machiavelli's "The Prince", although the Indian book on love pays heed to the morals of the time.

Both books are guides to some of the aspects of their respective societies and both deal with them in a frank and realistic manner. Vatsyayana is not fooling himself that men and women are naturally virtuous creatures and so was perfectly willing to give advice on how to seduce married women, just as Machiavelli knew that a prince is bound to do evil things every once in a while. Such is life.