The fact that Vatsyayana cites the use of black magic in defense of dharma would certainly not please Manu.

The argument for the regularity of the planets may be meant either to defend astrology, regarded as a part of dharma, or to imply a divine conscious- ness in the heavenly bodies. (1.2.25)Д«eyond Dharma:В Dissent in the Ancient Indian Sciences of Sex and PoliticsД«y defending the вЂњstability of the system of the four classesвЂќ Vatsyayana may be subtly seeking the support of the religious and secular critics of his work and undermining their criticism of a text dedicated to pleasure. Vatsyayana says: People should perform dharmic acts, because the text cannot be doubted because, sometimes, black magic and curses are seen to bear fruit because the constellations, moon, sun, stars, and the circle of the planets are seen to act for the sake of the world as if they thought about it first because social life is marked by the stability of the system of the four classes and four stages of life and because people are seen to cast away a seed in their hand for the sake of a crop in the future. Vatsyayana then blows these arguments out of the water with an uncharacteristically otherworldly credo:

Who but a fool would take what is in his own hand and put it in someone elseвЂ™s hand? Better a pigeon today than a peacock tomorrow, and вЂBetter a copper coin that is certain / than a gold coin that is doubtfulвЂ™вЂќ (1.2.21вЂ“24). He offers a detailed defense of dharma against the imagined assertions of skeptics or materialists, whom he quotes as saying: вЂњPeople should not perform dharmic acts, for their results are in the world to come and that is doubtful. Though modeled on both the form and the slippery ethics of the Arthashastra, the Kamasutra still tries in many ways to make sex ethical in the deepest sense while trashing the conventions of Hindu social dharma.ДЄt times, Vatsyayana seems to assume a dharmic position. Yet he is concerned that people control their sexuality, in a way that is very Brahminical so I think he really does mean much that is expressed in the cautionary, afterthought, backpedaling verses at the ends of the chapters. Keith called вЂњ sang froid.вЂќ And his idea that the pleasures of kama should be taken wherever one can find them, within reason, is very un-Brahminical indeed. Vatsyayana generally simply ignores social dharma, with what A.

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