This study traces the appearence and relevance of love motifs in Sanskrit texts. It deals with preclassical and classical to medieval literature, with excerpts from the Vedic scriptures, the epics, the normative texts and the courtly formalized Kāvya. Attention is paid to the change in the status of women, whose position becomes gradually more subaltern over time. Several conventional topoi of Sanskrit erotic literature are examined, such as love enjoyed in the union of the lovers, or suffered in their separation; divine love, the traditional belief that women are more passionate than men, the different religious/philosophical schools’ outlook towards love; love in the dramatic theory of aesthetic experience; the importance of marriage, marital love as opposed or complementary to illicit love. Finally there is a brief survey of a few scientific disciplines that have something to say about the love experience, like Āyurveda, astronomy/astrology, the treatises on Dharma and those on the science of government.

Ways of presenting love in ancient Sanskrit literature / Baldissera Fabrizia. - In: INTERFACES. - ISSN 2421-5503. - ELETTRONICO. - 2:(2016), pp. 34-51.

Ways of presenting love in ancient Sanskrit literature

BALDISSERA, FABRIZIA
2016

Abstract

This study traces the appearence and relevance of love motifs in Sanskrit texts. It deals with preclassical and classical to medieval literature, with excerpts from the Vedic scriptures, the epics, the normative texts and the courtly formalized Kāvya. Attention is paid to the change in the status of women, whose position becomes gradually more subaltern over time. Several conventional topoi of Sanskrit erotic literature are examined, such as love enjoyed in the union of the lovers, or suffered in their separation; divine love, the traditional belief that women are more passionate than men, the different religious/philosophical schools’ outlook towards love; love in the dramatic theory of aesthetic experience; the importance of marriage, marital love as opposed or complementary to illicit love. Finally there is a brief survey of a few scientific disciplines that have something to say about the love experience, like Āyurveda, astronomy/astrology, the treatises on Dharma and those on the science of government.
2016
2
34
51
Baldissera Fabrizia
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/1075131
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