Valentines Day, Pink Chaddis and Kiss of Love

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Image: 7MB
Valentine's Day attracts controversy. Some call it 'un-Indian'. Is a day of love really alien to the subcontinent?

Anthropologists and historians have for long recorded practices of love making and the art of sex among India’s populace. The Muria tribe in Madhya Pradesh have an institutionalized system of weaning the youth towards sex – they’re sent to co-ed hostels where they must have sex with a different partner every seven days. The Khajuraho complex in Madhya Pradesh is a visual celebration of love – bland stones have been beautifully sculpted into erotic images depicting sexual motifs, celebrating and worshipping the intimate art of love making. The Kamasutra is the world’s oldest treatise on the art of lovemaking.

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A temple sculpture depicting an erotic union – Image: 7MBMentioned in the Mahabharata, Manusmriti and the Kamasutra is the practice of Gāndharva Vivāha – one of the eight ‘acceptable’ means of acquiring a bride. It allows couples to form a romantic union before their marriage, consummated by the act of sex. The Kamasutra calls it the foremost of all unions.

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Sculpture depicting a romantic union – Image: 7MB

History has evolved – only to vilify the art of love making. Now, most religions practised in India are clear about their stance on pre-marital sex – that it’s not good.



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