Pandaka

For the genus, seePandaka (fish).

Paṇḍakais aSanskritandPalisexualityterm which does not have a precise English translation, but incorporates (or perhaps confuses) multiple concepts associated withimmaturity,voyeurism,impotenceandinfertility.It has been studied under the auspices ofTheravadaBuddhistthought.

Historic context

In theVinayaPali Canon,4 gender types are defined: male, female,ubhatobyañjanakaand pandaka.ubhatobyañjanakarefers tointersexor literallya person with the signs of both binary sexes/genders.(Historic references tohermaphroditismhave been superseded by the understanding that true hermaphroditism has never been observed in humans.) Paṇḍaka is a less clear cut case, all references have a central theme: some form of deficiency in male sexual reproductive capacity or reproductive desire. In traditional Hindu pre-scientific thought, all reproductive capacity (or burden) has been assigned to the sperm andlingamwith no credit to the female or egg.

The Pali literature makes reference to five types of pandaka:

• asittakapandaka- A man who gains satisfaction from performingoral sexon another man and fromingesting his semen,and only becomes sexually aroused after ingesting another man's semen.
• ussuyapandaka- A voyeur, a man who gains sexual satisfaction from watching a man and a woman having sex, and only becomes sexually aroused after that.
• opakkamikapandaka- AEunuchby-assault,testiclethat are annihilated by assault or violence.( "still could attain ejaculation through some special effort or artifice". )
• pakkhapandaka- People who become sexually aroused in parallel with the phases of the moon.
• napumsakapandaka- A person with no clearly defined genitals, whether male or female, having only a urinary tract, one who is congenitally impotent.

Modern context

In the crackdowns oncrimeinpost-coupThailand,there is draft legislation to clean out crime and sociopaths from theSangha,and in this drive, a motion to criminalizesexual deviant behaviourswithin it, yet the very definitions ofsexual deviancyorparaphiliaare being challenged and revisited by scholars.

See also

• Kathoey
• Religion and homosexuality
• Sodomy
• Fellatio
• Voyeurism
• Sadomasochism
• Clinical lycanthropy
• Genitourinary disorders