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UID:20260922T213053EDT-3624jPonFc@132.216.98.100
DTSTAMP:20260923T013053Z
DESCRIPTION:Debanjan Das (McGill University)\n	\n	The Kāmasutra\, widely perc
 eived as a “book of love” or a “sex manual” composed in Sanskrit around th
 e third century CE\, remains one of the most famous and recognisable India
 n/Sanskrit texts across the world. The text was first translated into Engl
 ish and popularised in the West\, by Sir Richard Francis Burton and Colone
 l F.F. Arbuthnot in 1883\, as Aphorisms on Love. The text was available in
  limited circulation under the auspices of the fictitious Kama Shastra Soc
 iety. Though it was not ‘legally’ published in the US and Great Britain ti
 ll 1962\, Burton’s The Kāmasutra of Vatsyayana remained the most authorita
 tive English translation of the text. This talk examines how Burton’s tran
 slation of this relatively obscure text (in its original form) and underst
 anding of the text completely transforms this characterisation of the text
  rooted in a very specific context of c. fourth century CE meant for the u
 rban\, upper-class male\, to a universalistic\, timeless\, scientific text
  on understanding gender and sexuality in India within academic circles\, 
 and merely erotic literature in popular culture.\n	\n	This talk will discuss
  Burton’s “discovery” and translation of the Kāmasutra in the late ninetee
 nth century and situate its role in the making of an enduring intellectual
  tradition about ancient Indian sexuality within a broader globalised disc
 ourse on sexual knowledge that emerged at that time. It considers a tempor
 al scope between the late nineteenth century\, when the texts were first t
 ranslated by Burton and his associates\, and the late twentieth century\, 
 which saw the official publication of that translation. Between these two 
 critical moments\, the Kāmasutra became popularly entrenched (at least in 
 Western perceptions) as an authoritative repository of knowledge on ancien
 t Indian sexuality\, while also cementing Burton’s role as an authority as
  a “sexologist” in the late nineteenth century.\n	\n	Light refreshments serv
 ed.\n
DTSTART:20260325T190000Z
DTEND:20260325T210000Z
LOCATION:Room 116\, Peterson Hall\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 0E6\, 3460 rue
  McTavish
SUMMARY:IOWC Speaker Series: Debanjan Das\, ''Discovering' and translating 
 ancient 'Hindoo' sexuality: Burton and the Kāmasutra'
URL:https://www.mcgill.ca/history/channels/event/iowc-speaker-series-debanj
 an-das-discovering-and-translating-ancient-hindoo-sexuality-burton-and-371
 953
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