Joseph W. Elder Keynote Lecture with Wendy Doniger

The influence of the textbook of politics (the Arthashastra) on the textbook of sexuality (the Kamasutra) is deep and pervasive, most evident in the high incidence of distrust, betrayal and force in sexual relationships. And the subsequent influence of the Kamasutra upon not only the erotic literary traditions of India but the eroticism of the bhakti tradition accounts in part for the darkness of that tradition, its emphasis on divine abandonment, betrayal, and even violence.