International Kissing Day 2025: How Sanatan Bharat Gifted Kissing through Vatsyayana to the World?
- Abhishek Singh
- Jul 6
- 3 min read
Couples throughout the world will express conjugal love through kissing. Do they know the art of conjugal love is possible today because of Bharat's sanatan gyan shared in Vatsayan's Kamasutra? Happy World Kiss Day 2025!
It's love in the air today! The most widely used gesture to express love is being celebrated today. Yes! It's World Kiss Day or International Kissing Day 2025. Couples around the world will use kissing to express their inner feelings of love to their better halves today. Through the power of a simple kiss, they communicate the signs of love, care, and connection in mere seconds. Unknowingly to them, this simple act of a Kiss has deep roots in Sanatan Bharat or ancient India's Kamasutra- Manual of Love.
World Kissing Day 2025: Types of Kissing Practised Today
Kissing through the ages has evolved globally since its inception in Vedic India. Couples today practice a wide range of kisses from soft pecks to passionate French kisses. One can categorize the kissing practiced today between couples through the following forms:
French Kiss (Tongue Kiss):
It is the most commonly practiced kissing form popular among the youth today. It involves tongue contact signalling deep youthful passion.
Lip (Closed Mouth Kiss):
It's the most widely practiced kissing form between couples today. A gentle and intimate act to connect with one's better half.
Neck Kiss:
A sensual kiss on the neck, often done by couples before more intimate moments.
Forehead Kiss:
A comfortable social kissing norm done by couples to avoid being frowned upon. It is a globally accepted gesture symbolizing closeness without making anyone uncomfortable.
Earlobe Kiss:
It's a playful, arousing kiss on the neck, more like a nibble or a peck to grab your lover's attention. A much deeper, intimate gesture between couples.
Butterfly Kiss:
This is a kiss more in the name. Here, the eyelashes of one's better half touch the skin, sending a personal message of being close to one another.
Flying Kiss:
A symbolic kiss that expresses affection over distance. Used by couples for playfulness.
Vātsyāyana's Kamasutra: A Widely Misunderstood Love Manual
The word "Kāmasūtra" is a Sanskrit compound:
Kāma (काम) = Desire, love, sensual pleasure
Sūtra (सूत्र) = A thread, manual, or aphoristic guide
So, Kāmasūtra means:
"The Treatise (Manual) on Love, Desire, and Sensual Pleasure."
Contrary to the myth around the Kamasutra, written by Vātsyāyana, it is not a sex manual but a philosophical and practical guide to:
Human relationships
Emotional intimacy
Marriage & household life
Courtship and companionship
Sensual techniques (only one part of it)
Vātsyāyana catalogs 26 types of kisses in the Kamasutra. Here is the essence of the types of girls' kisses.
या केवलं मुखेन स्पृशति धीरा ... नाम्ना इति।
A few types of kisses amongst the 26 are as follows:
Nominal Kiss
Throbbing Kiss
Touching Kiss
Straight Kiss
Bent Kiss
Turned Kiss
Pressured Kiss
Greatly Pressured Kiss
Kiss that kindles Love
Kiss that awakens
Transferred Kiss
Demonstrative Kiss
The sage mentions that the male should reciprocate after the female's kiss.
यदि स्त्री चुम्बति … तेन पुनरपि चुम्बयेत्।
The important aspect is that it should be consensual, where the purpose should be to connect with one's better half. It should not be exploiting the other sex for satiating one's carnal desires.
Sanatan: The Source of Kissing in Human Love?
Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra not only elucidates the types of kissing but also has deeply embedded human lovemaking in emotional, cultural, and ethical dimensions. Kissing lineage can be traced back to Sanatan Gyan or the Vedic lineage, and also across different cultures across history, such as:
Ancient India (~1500 BCE–300 CE)
The Mahābhārata (~4th century BCE) includes affectionate mouth-to-mouth references
Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra (c. 200–300 CE) gives the first formal classification of kisses
Ancient Mesopotamia (~2500 BCE)
Clay tablets refer to kissing, likely romantic
Greece & Rome
Romans distinguished: osculum (cheek kiss), basium (lips, non-sexual), and suavium (passionate).
Medieval Europe & Christianity
“Kiss of peace” was a church ritual; kissing royalty symbolized respect or rank.
International Kissing Day, the Modern Era
Romantic kissing spread globally, although studies of 168 cultures show only ~46% practice it.
Sanatan Gyan proposes 4 pillars of life. Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. These are essential to live a holistic life. Each of these is a must to rise above the four miseries in life-birth, death, old age, and disease. On this joyous day of love, the World Kissing Day, or International Kissing Day, we must remember that kissing has evolved, it is centuries in the making, reminding us, a simple act like a kiss holds layers of history, intimacy, and human connection.
Yes, it is more than just about kissing, it is a means to connect with our better half, even get a peek into their very being, their soul. And yes, it all starts with just a kiss!
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