Finding Girls
An understanding of women and what women want is key to having fruitful and enjoyable relations, the Kama Sutra tells our young man.
The text details where a respectable young man might meet a girl, and even details how to talk to her. The text even advocates the use of a potential ‘go-between’, someone known to both parties who can speak freely to both about their interest (or lack thereof) in each other.
The text even says that a determined young man can use a female messenger if his chosen beloved ignores his advances and is not accessible to a male go-between. The text does caution, however, saying that whenever possible, the young man should make his own advances as his courageous display is more likely to win him favor.
Earning a Wife
Getting married in ancient Hindu society was no simple love match. Rather, the right woman had to be found, with not only her family, temperament and looks to be taken into account, but also such minutiae as her age which ‘should be three years or more younger than his own age.
Finding the right wife, the text tells us, will bring to the young man ‘offspring, affinity, and the increase of friends’, as well as ‘untarnished love’. With so much riding on choosing the correct woman, it is almost certain that many young men must have pored over the text, offering a quick but heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the wise author!
The Importance of Sexual Pleasure
Of course, the Kama Sutra is best known as a picture book of sexual positions – some people even today have the erroneous impression that there is no text at all. But the Kama Sutra in its original form never had any pictures included at all.
Instead, the author painstakingly broke down men and women into categories – for example, based on their libido, indicating which matches would be evenly balanced and which might end up in strife, such as if a woman with a high libido ended up with a man who had a lower sex drive.
Despite the lack of pictures, the text is clear in description and the instructions and informational snippets 
are easy to understand: for example, ‘when a man enjoys many women altogether, it is called “congress of a herd of cows”‘. While this may seem insulting to the modern Western mind, bear in mind that in Hinduism, cows are sacred creatures so the line is probably quite a beautiful one, in fact.
The text stresses the importance of sexual intercourse as a measured expression of consensual love between male and female and prohibits ‘unrestrained’ sex with women who are not willing. Intercourse, the book counsels, should follow thought and even discussion beforehand.
In fact, the book even advises women how and when to read the text, in order that they too, might know what to expect from a respectable suitor, what touching may or may not be appropriate and in what situations, as well as learning about sexual positions and how to both please and be pleased by one’s lover.
The text places a lot of importance on the pleasures of sex and the various sex acts – understanding that a good and healthy sex life is a sign of a happy marriage and partnership.
Alternative Lifestyles
Same-sex relationships are discussed, and not – as one might superficially assume – in a disapproving way. While some early translations have rendered the practices as being unsavory, the original text does not condone same-sex relationships.