Nagaraka in the Kāmasūtra: An Introduction to Masculinity in Early India

Abstract

The object of this study is to examine the idea of masculinity through the Nagaraka in the Kāmasūtra. The methodology that this study applies is textual analysis, or close reading. That is, it attempts to find the meaning of masculinity, especially with reference to the Nāgaraka, within this composition itself. Additionally, it utilizes scholarship in the field for a better understanding of masculinity. As a result, this study finds out that kāma as a tendency is not specific to males and females. Since knowledge has been a masculine enterprise wherein the females enter with the Kāmasūtra, their entrance might be viewed as disruption of the masculine monopoly that poses challenges to masculinity. It pinpoints the factors that build or refashion masculinity. It hinges on the economic stability or declination and the ideas of prakrti or svabhāva, or nature, and teja or tejas, or radiance and natural talent, and undergoes changes accordingly. This study suggests that economic declination might create a category of service providers, for instance, the veśyā, sub-Nāgaraka and the trtīyāprakrti, or third nature, person. They corroborate malleability and fluidity of masculinity. The idea of masculinity as malleable and fluid in the Kāmasūtra is what this study concludes.