Page:The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.djvu/137

 CHAPTER I.

wives of other people may be resorted to on the occasions already described in Part I, Chapter 5, of this work, but the possibility of their acquisition, their fitness for cohabitation, the danger to oneself in uniting with them, and the future effect of these unions, should first of all be examined. A man may resort to the wife of another, for the purpose of saving his own life, when he perceives that his love for her proceeds from one degree of intensity to another. These degrees are ten in number, and are distinguished by the following marks:


 * 1) Love of the eye.
 * 2) Attachment of the mind.
 * 3) Constant reflection.
 * 4) Destruction of sleep.
 * 5) Emaciation of the body.
 * 6) Turning away from objects of enjoyment.
 * 7) Removal of shame.
 * 8) Madness.
 * 9) Fainting.
 * 10) Death.

Ancient authors say that a man should know the disposition, truthfulness, purity, and will of a young woman, as also the intensity, or weakness of her passions from the form of her body, and from her characteristic marks and signs. But Vatsyayana is of opinion that the forms of bodies, and the characteristic marks or signs are but erring tests of character, and that women should be judged by their conduct, by the outward expression of their thoughts, and by the movements of their bodies.

Now as a general rule Gonikaputra says that a woman falls in love with every handsome man she sees, and so does every man at the sight of a beautiful woman, but frequently they do not take any further steps owing to various considerations. In love the following circumstances are peculiar