Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The sex seemed a casual and almost inconsequential part of their
time with each other. Other paintings depicted sexual positions so
ingeniously complex that the woman often required three
handmaidens to support her on her lover's proud erection. There
was much fellatio, too, the women looking more like people
enjoying an especially succulent and tasty delicacy. In one
extravagant scene a man penetrated five women simultaneously,
employing penis, fingers and toes, while a sixth woman held a mirror
in which was reflected the bald and fleshy labia of the woman
squatting over his lap.
But it was the eyes I noticed most in these scenes: they were
dreamy and tender, usually fixed on the lover's dreamy, tender eyes.
It is the breath of lip on lip,
the caress of eyes, breasts, hips, buttocks, thighs
in the beautiful embrace
from which a child is born:
learn it from the
kama sutra
and the world.
-
Kama Sutra
There were also many poignant images of postcoital embracing: a
hand coils to cup an exquisite breast; a head rests in a lap, staring out
at a night sky full of stars; bodies dark and pale rest within each
other like spoons. The whole gamut of the sexual act seemed to be
understood, accepted, equal; the man knowing how important it
was to show that the love that fuelled the lust became again just
deep, desireless love after the physical act.
After the lovemaking is over she may avoid your eyes
and act as though that abandoned creature,
whose body crushed those petals
on the bed, had been a different woman . . .
Then, making yourselves comfortable
upon rugs and cushions
spread out on the terrace
in the moonlight,
you may enjoy each other's company.
