Splitting the bamboo
M/F · Vaginal penetration · Penetrating partner on top
Posed figure
Keypoint template
Attributes
- Position family
- One-on-one
- Primary act
- Vaginal penetration
- Partner arrangement
- Penetrating partner on top
- Penetration type
- Vaginal
- Facing
- Face to face
- Dynamics
- Thrusting
- Support / surface
- Flat surface / bed
- Participant count
- Two
- Composition code
- M/F
- Source medium
- Illustrative
- Physical difficulty
- Moderate
- Prevalence in adult media
- Occasional
- Intensity tier (compliance)
- Explicit
Common camera framing
Description: Alternation, not a fixed shape, defines this Kama Sutra classic (Venudaritaka). The receiving partner lies supine and raises one leg to the penetrating partner's shoulder while the other stays extended along the bed; periodically the legs trade places, the raised one lowering as the extended one lifts, the motion Vatsyayana likened to splitting bamboo. Each swap shifts the pelvic angle, so the position cycles between two mirrored geometries rather than holding one.
Variations: The penetrating partner often holds the raised leg at the ankle; the slow alternation between legs is itself the defining motion, not an optional flourish.
On camera: Side profile is the canonical framing, reading the asymmetric split of one vertical and one horizontal leg; the pose appears mostly in illustrative sources.
AI design considerations: Give the supine figure exactly one raised and one extended leg; that asymmetry is what distinguishes it from legs-on-shoulders, and a symmetric render erases the pose entirely.
Historical provenance
Where this position appears in historical sex manuals, erotic art & literature · full timeline →
- Venudaritaka (splitting of a bamboo)Indian (Gupta era) →
Kama Sutra — Vatsyayana · c. 3rd century CE
The alternating raised leg is Vatsyayana's own image.
Related positions
Part of the Erotic Pose Catalog open dataset · CC BY 4.0 · keypoints are idealised COCO-17 templates.