The Complete Kama Sutra has seven parts and thirty-six chapters, of which the last part with two chapters is considered to be an appendix to the main work.[1] All together, the work contains one-thousand five-hundred and thirty-six sutras by Vatsyayana, the original compilator, as well as extensive commentaries by Yashodhara and Devadatta Shastri. Chapter One of Part One has forty-five sutras by Vatsyayana, all of which are carefully numbered. Sutra 38 is very to my taste, I must confess:

What has been said up to now concerning sexual relations has been said briefly, being intended for intelligent men. We will now explain in greater detail for people who are hard of understanding.[2]

Having come across this piece of wisdom, I chuckled to myself with palpable satisfaction. And then I jotted in the margins a couple of words in the language of my ancestors: intelligenti pauca. A moment later, I put the book down and opened my laptop. I went to my Residua website and searched for a piece of writing bearing this magnificent title, which I had penned soon after the start of my writing project forty-four years ago (“Intelligenti pauca,” November 8, 1976). Behold, the wise across millennia are always on the same page concerning brevity!

Footnotes

1. Translated by Alain Daniélou, Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1994.

2. Op. cit., p. 102.