When I edited Vatsyayana Sutra Vitti of Bhaskara Narasimha Shastri on the basis of its manuscripts obtained from Govt. Oriental Manuscripts Library-Chennai, and Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, I had no idea that this will be selected for publication by National Mission for Manuscripts - New Delhi. As it is, after the publication and all round popularity of Jayamangala commentary of Yashodhara interest for other commentaries on Kama Sutra from scholars were not bright. Anyway after its publication I looked back and discovered that I had already covered a lot of ground on the works written on Kama sastra. I had edited with English translation Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra and Padmaśri's Nāgara Sarvasva. In addition to these I had edited Kama Samuha of Ananta Kavi, Kama Sastra of Kama Deva and srngara Kavya of Sankara, which were lying unublished in manuscript form at various manuscripts libraries.
In the meantime, my close friend and associate in my studies Prof. Rama Shankar Mishra formerly Head of the Department of Sanskrit-Lucknow University persuded and prevailed upon me for writing a book on origin and development of Kama sastra in India. After my initial hesitation I agreed to carry out the assignment. Hitherto, a few scholars had written on this subject albeit not in a comprehensive manner. Thus S.K. De's "Ancient Indian Erotics", N.N. Bhattacharya's "History of Indian Erotic Literature", V.K. Hampiholi's "Kama sastra in classical Sanskrit Literature" can be mentioned. Besides these I know that one scholar Dr. Nidhish Kannan of Sri sankaracarya University of Sanskrit, Kerala had done his Ph.D. dissertation on this subject. Also I understand Dr. Raghavendra Mishra of Allahabad University had done research work on the history of Kama Sastra.
Each of these works is important in as much as these throw light on various aspects of Kama Sastra from different angles, However, considering the long course of origin and development of this branch of knowledge, and more importantly considering the fact that many of the important works on the subject which get mention in the available works on Kama Sastra are lost to us, I think my proposed small and may be not very significant contribution in this regard will not be unwelcome.
Under above mentioned facts, I present "History of Kama Sastra" to the world of scholars. In this connector, I want to express my gratitude to Prof. Rama Shankar Mishra not only for suggesting the idea but also for encouraging me and offering many ideas on the proposed book. I also want to place on record my deep thankfulness to Dr. Radhey Shyam Shukla of Pratibha Prakashan - New Delhi for taking personal interest in bringing out the book.
Lastly, I acknowledge my indebtedness to all the scholars who had contributed in this field of study.
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