'Kama Sutra' Has Been Modernised And Illustrated By A Woman For First Time

Most people will automatically think of sex when anyone mentions the words Kama Sutra.

The ancient Indian text, which is more than 2,000 years old, is famous in the Western world for giving everyone a mild heart attack at the various illustrated sex positions. Some are kinky, some are wild and others just look like they could make you pull a muscle.

Funnily enough though, there's so much more to the Kama Sutra than just bumping uglies.

To hit that message home that there's a hell of a lot more material contained within the pages of the book, it's being brought into 2018 thanks to publisher The Folio Society.

The Folio Society

Not only that, but for the first time in the book's history, the illustrations have been done by a woman and the message will focus more on ensuring the woman has the same amount of pleasure as the man, according to the Daily Mail.

Illustrator Victo Ngai Ngai told the site: "Examining the pieces now in hindsight, I believe I did subconsciously worked from a female-centric perspective.

"For example, many of the scenes are composed in a way that situates the viewers in the women's point of view, while the writing often reflects the patriarchal attitude of its time.

"Sex is a big part in the book, but there's so much more to it than just intercourse positions, contrary to its portrayal in popular cultures."

The Folio Society/Victo Ngai

Victo says that she wanted to keep the essence of the original drawings in tact whilst keeping the depictions of sex 'thoughtful' and 'elegant'. She also excluded some of the classic positions on the basis that they 'are either too acrobatic or too adjusted to Indian physiques and temperaments to be capable of general adoption'.

But it's not as if the book will be like an Oprah moment with The Folio Society yelling at people saying: "You get a Kama Sutra, you get a Kama Sutra, you get a Kama Sutra." There will only be 750 copies released by the London-based publisher and you'll have to fork out £395.

Commissioning editor James Rose told the Independent: "It's about living this happy life, with all of the pleasures - and part of that is sex, but part of that is just being married, or mastering the 64 arts and sciences that one should learn to live a full life.

The book has four main areas of philosphy to learn about and master: desire, material prosperity, virtuous living and liberation. We'll give you one guess where the sex section is.

Topics: Interesting, Sex, Relationships

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

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