The Crescent Of Pleasure

AT the Third Asian Conference of Sexology held at New Delhi in November 1994, Dr Shashank Samak stirred a sexual storm. Stealing the limelight from experts Dr Beverly Whipple and Dr John Perry, he came up with an Indian answer to the Western G-spot, the Purnachandra Nadi or the fabled P-spot.

Dr Samak's discovery stemmed from a 16th century Sanskrit treatise on sex, the Ananga Rang (the colours of eroticism). Poring over ancient manuscripts in Pune's Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute a few years ago, he stumbled upon the Sanskrit writings of Pandit Kalyan Malla which meticulously detailed the areas of heightened pleasure in a woman.

Dr Samak correlated that material with his own research, and is currently spearheading a new women's movement in India. "I believe in equality of sexual pleasure. Therefore, both the man and the woman should be trained in the art of sex. More importantly, the woman should be able to demand her orgasm," he proclaims. Women are not exactly in a tizzy, nor are they bubbling over with half the excitement as the sexologist. But that does not dim his obvious pleasure in expounding on a subject that has now become his favourite.

According to Samak, the P-spot is located an inch-and-a-half inside the vagina and is situated quite elusively on the upper wall. "It cannot be felt as it comprises para-urethral glands that swing into action only when stimulated. The stimulation can occur either through fantasy or through the G-spot," says Samak.

For his remarkable discovery, the Far Eastern Economic Review labelled the 42-year-old Dr Samak as Doctor Love. Mr Hyde, counter his colleagues and envious sexologists who were pipped to the post this time. Dr Samak can only guffaw: "Mr Hide is more like it." G-spot expert Dr Whipple, after Samak announced his astounding discovery at the Sexology

Conference, is said to have remarked: "It just confirms what we have been suspecting all along." Beginning his career as a humble dermatologist, Samak, in the course of his profession, realised that his patient's problems ran deeper than their skin. Having had a long-standing fascination with sexual problems, it was purely by accident that this Brahmin boy from an orthodox Pune family put his finger, figuratively speaking of course, on the P-spot. And aided by the 16th century scholarly treatise, he went on to expound a theory that has created a stir in the field of sexology.

In the early '80s, the sexual possibilities of the G-spot—that acclaimed area of tremendous sensitivity in the woman's vagina—had sent the western world into rapturous ecstasy as also the women who believed in it. The difference between the older G-spot and the newly-discovered P-spot, according to the Ananga Ranga, is elementary. The former, called the sas-panda nadi, comprises sensory nerve endings and what Ananga Ranga labels as 'love-juice'. The latter, with its tangible glandular connection, is "fully filled with the liquid of ecstasy all the time present in the woman".

EVEN as Dr Samak expounds that female sexuality has come of age, scholastic view rages into fervent debate. Dr Prakash Kothari, premier sexologist and author of Orgasm—New Dimensions, offers a word of caution: "In my career of handling more than 45,000 cases, 10,000 of which may be women, only one woman reported ejaculation. And that too, just once or twice in her sexual life. Vatsyayana was far more learned than any one in this field and in his 1,600-year-old treatise, Kamasutra, there is no mention of ejaculation. On the other hand, Ananga Ranga is a relatively new treatise and, to the best of my knowledge, has no mention of ejaculation. There are people who harbour a myth that women ejaculate the way men do. And then there are people who equate lubrication with orgasm. It is merely a case of one myth leading up to another."

Unmindful of the storm he has unleashed, Dr Samak brushes aside the sceptics and stands a few dearly-held theories on their head. Holding on to his position, he happily razes others' to the ground. "The missionary position is the most ridiculous of all positions in a sexual relationship because the woman becomes completely immobile. Of the three most erotic spots—the clitoris, the G-spot and the P-spot—she only gets the frictional pleasure of the muscular vaginal ring on the outside."

 Recommended variations for those seeking to spice up their sex lives: the 'rear end posture', the 'woman on top' posture and side positions which enhance intimacy. Multiple orgasm for women is mowed down too. "A woman is not multi-orgasmic," he reveals, "what she experiences are only repeated muscle contractions. The orgasm which emerges from the P-spot is the true one. And it culminates in ejaculation, the fluid of which is of a watery nature emerging from the urinary tract."

The claims haven't gone down too well with experts who view statements like these as blasphemous. The point being raised consistently is whether Dr Samak really has his ear to the door or is he playing the field? "For a man, multiple orgasms is an acquired art. For a woman, it is an inbuilt thing. In India, two out of 10 women are capable of multiple orgasms and let's face it, an orgasm is an orgasm is an orgasm. She experiences the same peak each time and the changes can be recorded—and have been—recorded on the ECG and the EEF," challenges Kothari.

Meanwhile, the author of Vaidyakiya Kamashastra: Tantra aur Mantra prepares himself for the English edition of the same—and for the next of his tantric therapy course to cure impotence, premature and delayed ejaculation. "The tantra in this case does not involve black magic or any kind of mumbo-jumbo. I have named it so only to honour the art and give it due credit. I haven't discovered anything new. It was all there in the ancient texts. All I've done is make it relevant to modern times," says Dr Samak with all humility.

"The cheapest sex therapy in the world" is supposedly working one-week wonders and to a few of his patients, the chairman of the Kama Research Institute of Scientific Sexuality (KRISS) continues to touch new peaks of popularity. And the women for whom he has discovered the P-spot? Are they thronging to the cramped clinic in the heart of Pune city? Is he a pin-up guy in the making? "No, all the women who come here are accompanied by their husbands. And though people would like to believe it, I am no sex maniac. I am a happily-married man with two lovely children." No hot spots for Dr Samak: P or otherwise!