by Seema Anand
*See Alex Comfort (trans.), The Koka Shastra, Being the Ratirahasya of Kokkoka, and Other Medieval Indian Writings on Love, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1964.
Scratching in the Art of Lovemaking
According to the Kama Sutra, scratching was one of the top three must-have skills for any lover. Scratches were not just random marks of passion made in the heat of the moment. Much like love bites, they had a vocabulary all of their own—different types of scratches on specific spots carried different messages. According to the Kama Sutra, a scratch was like a love letter, and like a love letter it had the power to excite you each time you looked at it. Just as you would pick up a love letter and read and reread it, hold it close to your heart, sigh over the words your lover had penned down, similarly the scratches spoke to you in the voice of your lover. In The Satasai, the medieval romantic poet Bihari writes of his young heroine who will not allow her scratch marks to heal. Her lover has gone off on a journey but left love wounds on her—four long scratches on her upper thigh that say he will miss her. These marks are all she has of him to keep her company during the long lonely nights and she is determined to hold on to them. Each time they begin to scab over, she digs them up with her own nails—because that’s where he had said he would be thinking of her.
According to the Kama Sutra, the sight of love scratches, even on a total stranger, was enough to fire up all of one’s lust and passion. If a man, walking down the road perchance sees a woman wearing the marks of love, be he a man of firm resolve and pure mind, he will feel aroused and find himself desiring the woman, even if she is a total stranger, and he will go out of his way to try and make the acquaintance of that woman.
Similarly, if a woman sees the man marked with love scratches, no matter how modest, chaste or faithful she may be, she will find herself wanting to make love to him, she will not be able to help herself.
And scratches weren’t just something that excited you in the heat of passion, they were equally effective the morning after—or even several mornings after. The Kama Sutra says that when a woman sees the marks of her lover’s nails on the concealed parts of her body, by the sight of them her passion for him is aroused again, even if it has been dying a slow death over the past few days.
The expert lover knew exactly how to scratch, when to lightly scrape the nails across the skin to leave the beloved quivering in anticipation and when to really drive in the nails to heighten the ecstasy of the moment. Vatsyayan says if you can learn this art you will be counted among the most desirable of lovers and will never have to suffer through average sex again.
Now that’s a big claim!
So let the lessons begin.
Both men and women scratched.
Love scratches were made to be seen. As I’ve mentioned, in this period of court romances, public marks of love were like badges of honour—they were the sign of a good lover, a means to show off your sexual prowess in bed and they were worn like ornaments.
And just as only people with good teeth were ‘allowed’ to leave love bites, only people with good nails were allowed to make scratch marks. ‘Good nails’ were shiny and even, with no bumps and ridges, they had to all be of equal length—not broken or chipped. They had to be strong so they wouldn’t crack while kneading or pushing and they had to be clean and smooth with no dirt stuck underneath.
For men especially, the difference between good nails and bad nails could be the difference between getting the woman or not. The Kama Sutra says that women of Gauda (North Bengal) were particularly attracted to men with good nails.
Love scratching was done with the nails of the left hand—the right hand was used for eating, the left hand was used for sex and cleaning yourself.
The nails of the left hand were shaped according to your sexual energy and your proficiency in bed. If you had ‘fierce sexual energy’ you shaped your nails into two or three points, like the teeth of a saw; if you were of medium energy you filed them into a single point, like the beak of a parrot; and if you were of mild sexual energy you shaped your nails flat, in the shape of a half moon.
The Kama Sutra tells us that the people of South India have naturally perfect nails for scratching—strong, resilient nails that can take a lot of pushing and kneading. The people of Maharashtra are of such high sexual energy that they keep the nails of both hands shaped for love scratching.
Love scratches, says the Kama Sutra, should be made on seven specific areas of the body—the neck, cheeks, breasts (chest), back, thighs (inner thigh and crotch, as well as outer thighs and the length of the leg), lower belly and buttocks. As we’ve seen, these spots are erogenous zones with major erotic nerves running through them. Some texts include an eighth spot—the armpits—as one of the most popular spots for making love scratches.
Vatsyayan acknowledges that in the throes of passion it is not possible to remember all the rules and lovers do tend to scratch anywhere they want, but one should try one’s best to remember. Although every part of the body can potentially be an erogenous zone, some areas just shouldn’t be forcibly aroused.
It’s a tricky situation. If the right places are not fully excited it can lead to terribly dissatisfying sex and can make the woman feel ill with frustration. If the wrong places are over-excited it can lead to a negative reaction that can cause her to faint.
So in order to protect your lover’s mental and physical health it was best to know exactly which spots to scratch.
But if you truly cannot stick to the rules the author offers one helpful hint—when passions are running high and orgasm is approaching, kiss her all over her body and when you see her eyes roll, that is an indication of where her excitement lies at that moment—that’s the spot to concentrate your energies.
When to scratch?
Love scratching is not something that you do at the beginning of foreplay—it is for when excitement has mounted and passions are hot. Vatsyayan says that if you begin scratching your lover in the very early stages of foreplay, far from being exciting it is merely annoying and can lead to things coming to an untimely end.
Also not every sexual encounter is suitable for scratching. It had to be for specific occasions.
For instance, the most popular occasion for love scratches was the eve of a long journey. Not only would this be an extra-long night of very passionate lovemaking, driven as it was by the heartbreak of impending separation, it was also the time to leave your mark on the beloved, something to remember you by. Traditionally, the mark on this occasion was four short straight scratches on the upper thigh that said ‘I’m your lover, wait for me to return.’
Another occasion was the return of the lover from a long journey. When the lover came back after an extended period of time, the beloved would greet him with mock crossness (narazgi or roothna—words that are hard to translate. It means a sort of mock anger that the lover is invited to wipe away with kisses and lovemaking). On this occasion one would leave five curved scratches on the breast of the beloved (man or woman) to say ‘we have made love and now finally I can sleep in peace again.’
Love scratches were also used for the first lovemaking after the woman finished her period.
But my favourite—love scratches could also be used to fake an orgasm. Just because it was the era of the Kama Sutra doesn’t mean there was an infallible formula for satisfaction—lovers in ancient India too had to fake it sometimes.
So, if you had the reputation for being a passionate lover but were really not feeling the heat on a particular night and yet you could not let the world know that you were in a slump (it was a kiss-and-tell society)—scratch!
If you were losing interest in your beloved, but didn’t want them to know—scratch!
If you were an indifferent lover but on your travels (where people didn’t know you), you wanted to tell a good story about yourself—you’d shape your nails like the teeth of a saw and scratch!
Types of Scratches
In the heat of passion the Kama Sutra may forg
ive you for scratching wherever you want but the type of scratch still had to conform to standards. Scratch marks were displayed and if you got the love marks wrong it would brand you as a bad lover—and that, as Vatsyayan repeatedly tells us, is a fate worse than death. So pay attention.
The first type of scratch is to arouse desperate cravings but not satisfy any. Scrape the nail across the flesh, barely touching the skin, just enough to give your lover goose flesh and get their nerves tingling. You can do this either with all the five nails or just the thumbnail. This should not leave any marks. The best place for this is the lower lip, the cheeks and the breasts. According to Yashodhara (the most famous commentator of the Kama Sutra from the thirteenth century), the Bengalis are the best at this—they do not scratch with their nails, they just touch.
All other scratches are harder and will leave marks. For these the skin has to first be prepared. This is done by alternately pulling the skin gently and pinching it fairly hard. It sounds complicated but Vatsyayan says it is just a matter of practice.
There are eight different types of love scratches.
Acchurita or Knife Stroke—this one is known for the clicking sound it makes when the thumbnail strikes the other nails. Press your thumbnail into the flesh first and then bring the other nails down hard next to it, making the ‘click’ sound as they come together. This can be done on all the recommended scratch points according to your pleasure.
Ardhachandra or Half-moon—this looks like a semi-circle and is made on the neck or below the breasts with just one nail (any nail) at a time. When done with the middle finger it leaves the most permanent mark, but when done with the little finger it is most effective in arousing excitement. You can leave a series of these marks to look like a necklace of Ardhachandras.
Mandala or Circle—two half-moon marks are made facing each other. The best spots for the Mandala are the lower belly, the inner thigh and the bottom.
Rekha or Dash—a scratch in the shape of a straight line. This can be made anywhere on the recommended spots. The only proviso is that it has to be short, about the length of two or three thumb breadths.
Vyaghranakha or Tiger’s Claw—this is a curving mark made with the nails of the thumb and the first three fingers of the hand (not using the little finger). The Vyaghranakha is made on the face and breasts. Normally it would just be one mark, but if more than one are made, they are placed one behind the other.
Mayurpadaka or Peacock’s Foot—when the nipple is seized by all five nails and pulled outwards, the nail marks around the breast are known as the Mayurpadaka.
Shashaplutaka or Hare’s Jump—if the beloved has shown with the rolling of her eyes and her moans that she has enjoyed the Mayurpadaka, then the lover is advised to pull the nipple harder. The marks left by this added force are called the Shashaplutaka.
Utpalapattraka or Lotus Leaf—these marks do not have a distinct shape but tend to look a bit like an open lotus leaf. They are made on the side of the breasts or the buttocks by digging in and pinching hard with all the nails.
These are the suggested nail marks but of course there can be many variations—as many variations as there are lovers and nights of love. Everyone can scratch during the frenzied moments of passion—only the skilled lover will understand how to turn the frenzy into an art form.
Love scratches had an interesting vocabulary. They were the manifestation of Memory, which is another name for Kamadeva—sometimes he makes you remember and sometimes he makes you forget, and each state brings its own pleasure and sorrow. Love scratches were meant to remind you of the qualities of the beloved—beauty, youth, what you did together, and so on.
Four short straight lines on the upper thigh brought painful memories because that meant the lover had gone away on a long journey, but they were also agonizingly pleasurable because they reminded you of your last night together.
The Peacock’s Foot on the breast was intoxicating in its arousal—it was made during orgasm when the lover returned. Looking at it took the beloved back to her orgasm each time.
Love scratches were the tell-tale mark of infidelity. Many a heart was broken at the sight of illicit scratch marks on the body of the husband or the lover. Sanskrit poetry is full of verses written on the illicit scratch mark:
You didn’t go the scoundrel’s house,
You went to the woods, didn’t you?
How else could you have gotten that garland
Of flame-tree flowers you’re wearing?*
The garland of ‘flame-tree flowers’ refers to the necklace of red scratch marks around the neck. The heroine had employed a maid to carry a message to her lover, but when she sees her coming back with the love scratches, she realizes that the wretch has managed to seduce the man for herself.
The Kama Sutra also has a list of when not to leave scratch marks.
Do not leave love scratches on someone else’s spouse as this could lead to a great deal of trouble in a relationship.
Similarly, on an unmarried girl—unless you plan to marry her—you must not leave love scratches that can be seen by everyone, as that will ruin her reputation. If you really wanted to leave a scratch mark then it should be done on a hidden part of the body where the beloved can enjoy it without being discovered.
If you were not able to be with your beloved you could ‘send’ scratch marks to the beloved as a parcel. The parcel consisted of a red wax seal—the kind used to seal letters. The red wax was pressed with a coin to create the desired shape and into this the nail marks were embedded. This seal indicated an intense erotic longing—‘I am dreaming of making love to you’. If tied with a red thread it meant, ‘my passion for you has reached its height’ and when embedded with five nail marks it implied, ‘I have been pierced by the five arrows of Kamadeva’.
A man or a woman with absolutely no love scratches was an object of great pity—obviously there was no love in their life and hadn’t been in a very long time!
When passions have been given up long ago
Love may disappear
Unless there are wounds made by nails
To prompt memories of the abode of passion.*
My Advice
Put aside all the instructions for a moment and focus on the pleasure of it—scratching and being scratched is orgasmic and a natural instinct of sexual arousal.
Unlike the lovers of the Kama Sutra, in modern times scratching seems to almost exclusively be the role of the woman—she scratches, he receives. And, again, unlike the Kama Sutra, today scratches seem to be restricted only to the back and occasionally the shoulders. But it works! If he can get her to unbearable excitement she will automatically scratch him—it’s a sort of release valve. When she scratches him it stimulates certain pleasure points in his back, making him come even harder.
The romance is in the position. To hold your lover tight in your arms and scratch their back means that you are embracing face to face—the Kama Sutra says this is the most intimate position because it is the position of the cuddle, the position that makes one feel most loved and cherished.
But scratching can also be a sexy shared moment even if you are not having sex. To slip your hands under your lover’s clothes and feel their back, momentarily, briefly, no matter where you are, and just scrape gently with the nails creates a frisson that very few other things can.
But what about flirtation? Scratching has great currency for sexual arousal and orgasms but can it be used to start a flirtation? Is it an art of seduction?
This is where the Kama Sutra’s suggestion comes in—to send love scratches as a message to the beloved. Imagine being able to pack all that sexual arousal, all the excitement, all the suggestiveness of the scratch into a little message. Now imagine the potential for flirtation.
Get creative. You can send scratches via emoticons, cards, text messages with nail shaped scratch marks. They will definitely get his or her attention.
Send a photo of your most recent manicure—it’ll keep the flirtation ligh
t-hearted and fun.
This is an excellent way to excite and entice but still stay mysterious. It hints at the intimacy of scratching and everything that goes with it without being explicit.
The Kama Sutra stresses that it is all about rasa or the mood—your actions must be geared to create the right mood. The playful suggestiveness of a ‘scratch-package’ will create the mood of anticipation, of possibilities, of mystery.
*Bouquet of Rasa and River of Rasa by Bhanudatta Misra, edited and translated by Sheldon Pollock, New York: New York University Press, 2009, p. 33.
*Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar, Kama Sutra, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 47.
The Art of the Curved Finger
In eighteenth-century Europe it was a disease, in the nineteenth century it was the cure.
In eighteenth-century Europe, using the fingers to pleasure yourself was a crime and could have you burnt at the stake—it was a disease that had to be stamped out. By the nineteenth century, women were diagnosed to be suffering from an unreasonable illness called ‘hysteria’ and the fingers became a cure. You could relieve a woman of most of her symptoms (the common cold was not included, unfortunately) by stimulating her with the fingers until she reached her orgasm. Most doctors offered this service, at the regular fee of two dollars a sitting, and it was a most effective cure. The only problem being it was terribly slow! It could take as much as an hour to stimulate the woman properly—a problem that would be solved some years later with the advent of the mechanized vibrator (more of which in the chapter Dildos—Romance, Seduction, Fulfilment).
Two thousand years ago, however, the Kama Sutra believed that the art of the curved finger was the ultimate way to pleasure a woman, it was the doorway to orgasm. According to Ayurveda, the yoni (vulva) is a veritable Aladdin’s cave, full of G-spots—erogenous points that are located on all sides and at different depths. And only the curved finger could do justice to them—the soft finger-tipped massage alternating with the gently grazing nail—it was the key to mind-blowing orgasms and ecstasy.
