"Even nature itself—exceptionally lush—and the climate—mild, warm, tropical—create optimal conditions for practicing eroticism in India; it is a kind of oriental prayer in which a woman’s body is the sacrificial altar. The fundamental idea of Hindu beliefs from the earliest times was and remains the divinity of sex; its existence is a manifestation of the creative energy that created the world and stimulates its further development. After all, India is the homeland of the finest treatise on the art of lovemaking, the "KAMASUTRA." It is also home to the two basic cult symbols of Hinduism—the linga and the yoni—which are found on every household or temple altar. Even today, offerings of rice, flowers and lit oil lamps are placed at these household places of worship—small altars. They are smeared with butter and milk, painted with red paint and covered with metal foil.
India is a country of contrasts: here, people worship not only sacred cows, but also beehives and tree trunks, individual columns, and even anthills as representations of the linga. The atmosphere of eroticism permeates the palaces of the wealthy and, to an equal extent, poor rural huts..."
This is an excerpt from the extensive memoir of a woman from Bolesławiec who lived in Bombay for a quarter of a century as the wife of a Hindu engineer, traveling across the vast subcontinent far and wide. The first installment of these fascinating recollections will appear soon.