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The world’s oldest and most widely read guide to the pleasures and techniques of sex, the Kama Sutra was compiled in the fourth century A.D. by a Brahmin and religious scholar named Vatsyayana, who worked from texts dating back to the fourth century B.C. Until the present, the only English translation of this Hindu love classic was that of the famous English explorer Sir Richard Burton, published in 1883.

Unlike Burton’s version, Alain Danielou’s new translation preserves the numbered verse divisions of the original and includes two essential commentaries: the Jayamangala commentary, written in Sanskrit by Yashodhara during the Middle Ages, and a modern Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastri. Whereas Burton’s Victorian reluctance to translate certain terms obscured our understanding of the philosophy and techniques of the Kama Sutra, Danielou has preserved the full explicitness of the original, dealing with everything from the art of scratching to relations with the wives of others.

Realistic and pragmatic in its approach, the Kama Sutra deals without ambiguity or hypocrisy with all aspects of sexual life-including marriage, adultery, prostitution, group sex, sadomasochism, male and female homosexuality, and transvestism. The text paints a fascinating portrait of an India whose openness to sexuality gave rise to a highly developed expression of the erotic.

Alain Danielou, in a career spanning six decades, has elucidated for thousands of readers the meaning of the art, music, and religious traditions of both East and West. His numerous books include The Myths and Gods of India, Gods of Love and Ecstacy, and Virtue, Success, Pleasure, and Liberation.