sensualblissvoyager

Last weekend, couples took to the streets of conservative Kerala to shake up a hardline Hindu stance against kissing. They did it the most obvious way possible - by kissing. Not surprisingly, they got arrested for it. But we've been kissing since forever, so why the drama? Of course, anyone can quote the Kama Sutra to prove this, but desi tongue action is much older.

Kissing in the Vedas

Yes, the Vedas - they mention the custom of rubbing and pressing noses together, possibly an early form of kissing.

Kissing in the Mahabharata

500 to 1,000 years after the Vedas, the Mahabharata also mentioned lip kissing, taking the aforementioned nose-rubbing a step ahead.

How India exported the kiss

The zero is not the only thing we can brag about inventing. According to academics, kissing spread across the world as Alexander the Great conquered Punjab in 326 B.C., and his troops learned the practice, taking it across the world ! Even the word "kiss" came from the word "kus", once used for the act in northern India.

Our first on-screen kiss

It wasn't the 1970's Rishi Kapoor era, but the 1929 silent film “A Throw of Dice” which saw our first on-screen kiss. 4 years later, Devika Rani kissed Himanshu Rai in “Karma” - a 4 minute kiss. Somewhere between then and now, we went crazy about morals. This was obvious when outrage resulted from a 75 year old Nelson Mandela kissing Shabana Azmi on the cheek.

Cut to now - when India gets so ridiculously excited about an on-screen kiss that actors have made careers from the act!

(Research sourced from 'A Short History of the Kiss in India', Wall Street Journal India, 1 November 2014)