Yoga

1903 · réf. 7956 — Berlin: Lotus-Verlag 1903. First edition. 25x17cm 1 101pp plus 3 35pp paginated section of notes at rear. Text in English 4 unnumbered color plates at front. 1/2 polished red calf over checkered cloth boards brown spine label lettered in gilt. Samuel Weiser ticket on front pastedown original front wrapper bound in. Stab holes at inner margins few smudges to outer margins else clean and near fine. Rare English translation of the Ratirahasya a ca. 12th century Indian Sex Manual written by the poet Kokkoka. The text differs greatly from the ancient Kama Sutra in that it deals with medieval Indian society and it is speculated it was written for a king named Venudutta. The manual deals with various topics such as types of genitals pleasing women based on the lunar calendar sexual congress and positions stages of love such as weight loss and fainting detailed descriptions of Indian feminine beauty aphrodisiacs and others. The Ratirahasya has been translated into several languages the most well-known English version being done by Alex Comfort author of The Joy of Sex in 1964. This version is credited to Richard Schmidt 1866-1939 an Indology scholar and lecturer at the University of Halle and librarian at the German Oriental Society. His academic work was primarily focused on producing reliable editions and translations of works of ancient Indian narrative literature and on making Sanskrit texts on eroticism available to researchers in other disciplines. From the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. We find little mention of this translation by Schmidt although it was reprinted in Calcutta by the Medical Book Company in 1949 and 1960. Of the 1903 first edition OCLC cites a single holding at Waseda University in Japan. From the library of Blanche DeVries and Pierre Bernard. . Lotus-Verlag unknown