Ananga Ranga, Stage of the Bodiless One: the Hindu Art of Love.
New York: Medical Press of New York, 1964. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. xxiv + 148pp ["Ananga Ranga"] + 30pp [pharmacopeia]. Original cloth spine with pictorial papered boards. Frontis, appendices, b/w illustrations. The "Ananga Ranga" (Stage of Love) or Kamaledhiplava (Boat in the Sea of Love) is an Indian guide to the erotic arts, written in the 15th or 16th century by Kalyana malla . It is frequently likened to the Kama Sutra, from which it draws. The work was first translated into English under the editor ship of Sir Richard Francis Burton (famed explorer and editor of the "Arabian Nights", etc. etc. This volume reprints the text of the Burton edition, along with black and white photographs of Indian erotic art and a separate work "Ars Amoris Indica", a pharmacopeia detailing the herbs, plants and recipes used as aphrodisiacs or for other sexual matters in India, that are referenced in the "Ananga Ranga". Somewhat dated 1960s production values. Faint sweet incense smell. Corners lightly bruised, otherwise a tight, clean VG+ in copy in VG+ dust jacket (lightly rubbed with a few tiny chips edges, now protected by a removable mylar cover). Item #67295
Price: $25.00