"The Kamasutra is the most widely read treatise on sex ever written, although the man who chronicled all there was to experience between men and women remains a mystery. In The Ascetic of Desire, Sudhir Kakar tells the story of the Kamasutra's author, Vatsyayana, and his times - the fourth century A.D., considered the golden age of Indian history.".

"In The Ascetic of Desire, the elusive sage Vatsyayana recounts his youth to a pupil, the son of a Brahmin scholar, who is embarking on his first exploration of the sensual life. The young man, planning to write Vatsyayana's biography, listens dutifully as Vatsyayana shares stories of a childhood spent largely in the brothel where his favorite aunt worked. There Vatsyayana gained his first, indelible impressions of sexual artifice and the arousal of desire.

Side by side with the unfolding of Vatsyayana's life is the story of a young man's coming of age, as the pupil finds, to his consternation, that his own life has begun to reflect and parallel the ascetic's narrative. At the point where their stories intersect, the unexpected happens."--BOOK JACKET.