Reader traces the “expert at rape” wording of SB 4.25.41 to Visvanatha Cakravarti’s commentary and the Kama-sutra
A reader answers Akincana Gocara’s call for comment on the removed paragraph with a short philological note: the wording may trace back to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s commentary, and the “vīra” the verse praises has a long pedigree in Sanskrit literature.
Jan Mares, who edits the VEDA – Vedic Encyclopedia website (veda.harekrsna.cz), has written to Akincana Gocara in response to our report of 7 October on the paragraph cut from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.25.41, in which we invited statements from ISKCON leaders and institutions.[3] Mares, who says he writes as a private devotee and not as a leader or official representative of ISKCON, points to a note he has published on the site’s “Current issues” page tracing the purport’s wording about a woman liking a man “very expert at rape” through the ācāryas’ commentaries, the Monier-Williams dictionary and the Kāma-sūtra.[1]
Background
On 1 October, Akincana Gocara reported that the paragraph containing the sentence had been removed from the online Bhaktivedanta VedaBase entry for the purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.25.41 without any editorial notice.[2] On 7 October we published the responses of senior ISKCON leaders and asked ISKCON institutions, including the GBC and the BBT, to send statements.[3]
What the note says
The relevant subsection of the VEDA page makes three points.[1]
- A paraphrase of Viśvanātha Cakravartī. In the purport, Mares writes, Śrīla Prabhupāda “seems to paraphrase” part of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s commentary on the following verse, 4.25.42, which addresses the hero with the words he ghṛṇoddhata and kṛpayā uddānta. He glosses ghṛṇā as mercy, uddhata as aggressive, kṛpayā as merciful and uddānta as energetic.
- The dictionary. He quotes the Monier-Williams entry for uddāna, “the act of binding on, fastening together, stringing”, with the derived sense “taming, subduing”.
- The “famous hero”. What the verse’s phrase vīra vikhyāta means, he suggests, “seems to be delineated” in the Kāma-sūtra 6.1, which lists the qualities of men worth resorting to “for the sake of love, and fame”: men of high birth, learned, worldly-wise, poets, good storytellers, eloquent, energetic, strong and powerful in sexual enjoyment. He adds that vīra is also one of the three categories of male practitioners in the vāma-mārga tantras, whose descriptions agree with these qualities, “mostly from kṣatriya varṇa”.
The note is brief and does not argue for or against the BBT’s decision to remove the paragraph. The same page collects other devotees’ answers on questions about women in Vedic society, including contributions attributed to Suhotra dāsa, Kṛṣṇa Kṣetra dāsa and Bhanu Swami on varṇāśrama and the performance of yajña by women.[1]
About the source
The VEDA – Vedic Encyclopedia site at veda.harekrsna.cz is a devotee-run reference site; its “Current issues” page is a compilation of questions and answers that credits VEDA, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Krishna.com and the individual authors, names J. Mares as the site contact, and is published under a Creative Commons licence. It is not an official ISKCON or BBT publication.[1]
Note on the source: Akincana Gocara has not checked the Sanskrit of Viśvanātha Cakravartī’s commentary or the Kāma-sūtra passage against the original texts; the note summarises Mares’s reading. Readers with access to the commentaries are invited to comment. Any statement received from the BBT or the GBC in response to our invitation of 7 October will be published.
Read Also:
Sources
- J. Mares (ed.), “Current issues”, section 5, “Questions about women”, VEDA – Vedic Encyclopedia (veda.harekrsna.cz), retrieved 15 October 2026. veda.harekrsna.cz/bhaktiyoga/issues.htm#5
- “Vedabase.io and the BBT quietly cut “expert at rape” paragraph from Srila Prabhupada’s purport to SB 4.25.41”, Akincana Gocara, 1 October 2026. akincana.net/2026/10/01/vedabase-io-quietly-cuts-expert-at-rape-paragraph-…
- “Senior ISKCON leaders respond to the removal of the “expert at rape” paragraph from SB 4.25.41”, Akincana Gocara, 7 October 2026. akincana.net/2026/10/07/senior-iskcon-leaders-respond-to-the-removal-…
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