Although the Kama Sutra itself is a written text, the visual tradition that has grown up around it is nearly as old as the book itself. Sculpture, painting and, in the modern period, printed illustration have all shaped how readers imagine Vatsyayana's world. This page surveys that visual life.
Sculpture. Khajuraho and other temple complexes
Several groups of medieval Hindu temples, most famously the temples of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, built between roughly 950 and 1050 CE — carry sculptural friezes depicting couples in intimate embrace. These sculptures long predate the Burton translation and are often invoked in modern discussions of the Kama Sutra. Strictly speaking, the temple friezes were not carved as illustrations of Vatsyayana's book. They were made for religious and cultural purposes of their own. But they belong to the same broad classical Indian tradition of thinking about desire, and modern readers often understand them alongside the text.
Miniature painting. Rajput and Mughal traditions
From the sixteenth century onward, a rich tradition of miniature painting in northern India produced illustrations of intimate and courtly life. The Rajput and Mughal schools developed sophisticated visual conventions for depicting embraces, gardens, pavilions and courtly interiors. Some of these paintings were made explicitly to illustrate erotological manuals, the Ananga Ranga and, occasionally, the Kama Sutra itself.
The Victorian illustrated tradition
The first widely printed illustrated editions of the Kama Sutra appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawing on the miniature painting tradition. These editions were often limited-run productions for private subscribers, given the strict obscenity laws of the period, and they shaped how English-speaking readers imagined the text for many decades.
The modern illustrated edition
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have produced a wide range of illustrated Kama Sutra editions, from serious scholarly reproductions of Indian miniatures to popular gift-book editions with newly commissioned artwork. Their quality is highly variable. A cautious reader looking for a serious illustrated edition should look for one that acknowledges its sources, reproducing a specific miniature tradition, or citing the specific manuscripts on which its illustrations draw.
Contemporary art
Contemporary artists have periodically returned to the Kama Sutra as a subject. Some of the best-known recent work is by Milo Manara, whose graphic-novel version has enjoyed wide circulation in the West. Whatever one thinks of individual works, the modern tradition of taking the book as a visual subject is now several generations old.
Visual conventions
Certain visual conventions run consistently through the classical illustrated tradition. Couples are usually placed in a garden, a pavilion or a private chamber; the settings are lush but ordered; the figures are stylised rather than photographic. The overall register is of measured, cultivated pleasure rather than raw sensation. This is very close to the underlying register of the written text.
Museums to visit
Serious collections of relevant material are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Museum in New Delhi and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Their online collections are excellent starting points for a reader who wants to see rather than only to read.
Continue reading
This page belongs to Tesro, our editorial resource on the classical Sanskrit treatise. Nearby you may want to read the pages on Kama Sutra Massage and Tantric Practices. Anyone curious about how the site is written should look at the About and Editorial Standards pages, and, on the regulatory side, at Regulation & Compliance and Publishers & Operators.