Positions from the Medieval Texts

When lovers, with legs stretched rigid
and feet caressing feet,
make love according to their hearts' desire,
"tantra" scholars call it "Sampada" (Equal Feet)
and agree it is a way to ecstasy.

Stiff as a pole in the bed's center,
she lies making love,
cooing and warbling like a woodpigeon,
the jewel of her clitoris well-polished:
this is Mausala" (The Pestle).

When she lies on her back
with her two thighs pressed tightly together
and you make love to her,
keeping your thighs outside hers,
it is "Gramya" (The Rustic).

If, encircling and trapping
her thighs with yours,
you grip so hard that she cries out in pain,
it is "Ratipasha" (Love's Noose),
a device most charming to the ladies.

Her limbs, entwined in yours
like tendrils of fragrant jasmine creeper,
draw taut and slowly relax
in the gentle rhythm of lingam and yoni:
this is "Lataveshta" (The Clinging Creeper).

She draws her limbs together,
clasping her knees tightly to her breasts,
her yoni, like an opening bud,
offered up for pleasure:
this is known as "Mukula" (The Bud).

When she draws up her knees
and you clamp yours about her raised thighs,
trapping them in a tight knot
while riding saddle upon her buttocks
and kissing her, it is "Shankha" (The Couch).