Humans do it, and so do monkeys. Yes, they kiss. What is a kiss? Dictionaries say it is an act of touching someone or something with the lips, especially as a mark of affection or greeting. How old is this act of kissing? Dr Matilda Brindle, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, says kissing probably evolved around 21.5 million years ago in the large apes. Anthropologist Dr Vaughn Bryant of the University of Texas, after 30 years of research, has claimed that kissing by humans in reality is a Vedic habit, with ancient Sanskrit scriptures dating around 1500 BCE being the earliest record of a kiss. Bryant also said that kissing was not a universal practice but a learned behaviour that likely spread from India to other parts of the world after Alexander invaded India in 326 BCE. That was much before Vatsyayana wrote the Kama Sutra in the 3rd century CE. Dismissing Bryant’s claim, Troels Pank Arboll of the University of Copenhagen has said that Neanderthals could have touched each other with lips about 100,000 years ago. Arboll speaks about two types of kisses – a parental or friendly kiss and a sexual kiss. He also put the kiss as an act of submission (like subjects kissing a king’s feet) in the first category. According to Britannica, kissing as a form of greeting or salutation has a long history in Western civilization. A reference to the kiss is found in the Old Testament; ancient Greeks, Romans and Germans also kissed, it says. Earlier, Roman Catholics greeted one another with a ‘holy kiss’. Kissing, however, was rarely practised in the Orient. Kissing, be it in India or East Asia, was restricted to moments of private intimacy. Japan and China took to kissing in public under Western influence only in the late 20th century. In many cultures, the kiss is used as a standard greeting or a sign of respect, rather than an expression of sexual intimacy. A maternal kiss on the forehead, a friendly kiss on the cheek, a romantic kiss on the lips — these are the utmost signs of affection. By the way, kissing in public is not explicitly illegal in India. But one can argue that it can amount to a punishable offence if proven to be obscene under provisions of Section 296 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita. Fortunately or unfortunately, the law does not explicitly define “obscene”, thus leaving it to the discretion of courts and police to determine based on community standards.