chief guide to Hindoo erotic
literature.

Besides the treatise of Vatsyayana the following works on the same
subject are procurable in India:--

1. The Ratirahasya, or secrets of love.

2. The Panchasakya, or the five arrows.

3. The Smara Pradipa, or the light of love.

4. The Ratimanjari, or the garland of love.

5. The Rasmanjari, or the sprout of love.

6. The Anunga Runga, or the stage of love; also called
Kamaledhiplava, or a boat in the ocean of love.

The author of the 'Secrets of Love' (No. 1) was a poet named Kukkoka. He
composed his work to please one Venudutta, who was perhaps a king. When
writing his own name at the end of each chapter he calls himself "Siddha
patiya pandita," _i.e._, an ingenious man among learned men. The work
was translated into Hindi years ago, and in this the author's name was
written as Koka. And as the same name crept into all the translations
into other languages in India, the book became generally known, and the
subject was popularly called Koka Shastra, or doctrines of Koka, which
is identical with the Kama Shastra, or doctrines of love, and the words
Koka Shastra and Kama Shastra are used indiscriminately.

The work contains nearly eight hundred verses, and is divided into ten
chapters, which are called Pachivedas. Some of the things treated of in
this work are not to be found in the Vatsyayana, such as the four
classes of women, viz., the Padmini, Chitrini, Shankini and Hastini, as
also the enumeration of the days and hours on which the women of the
different classes become subject to love. The author adds that he wrote
these things from the opinions of Gonikaputra and Nandikeshwara, both of
whom are mentioned by Vatsyayana, but their works are not now extant. It
is difficult to give any approximate idea as to the year in which the
work was composed. It is only to be presumed that it was written after
that of Vatsyayana, and previous to the other works on this subject that
are still extant. Vatsyayana gives the names of ten authors on the
subject, all of whose works he had consulted, but none of which are
extant, and does not mention this one. This would tend to show that
Kukkoka wrote after Vatsya, otherwise Vatsya would assuredly have
mentioned him as an author in this branch of literature along with the
others.

The author of the 'Five Arrows' (No. 2 in the list) was one Jyotirisha.
He is called the chief ornament of poets,