The Kama Sutra (the ‘science of love’) is one of the world’s greatest books. Written between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, it is a magnificent treatise on sexual conduct and erotic technique. Its purpose is not simply to provide a menu for the sensual epicure or a training programme for the sexual athlete, but to comment on the situations in which men and women encounter, and to deal with them in such a way as to achieve personal fulfilment through ecstasy.