Same-Sex Love in India Reading from Literature and History

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About the Book

Same-Sex Love in India presents a stunning array of writings on same-sex love from over 2,000 years of Indian literature. Translated from more than a dozen languages and drawn from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and modern fictional traditions, these writings testify to the presence of same-sex love in various forms since ancient times. An eminent group of scholars have translated writings for the first time and have retranslated well-known texts to correctly make evident previously underplayed homoerotic content. Selections range from religious books, legal and erotic treatises, story cycles, medieval histories, and biographies, to modern novels, short stories, letters, memoirs, plays, and poem. From the Rig Veda to Vikram Seth, this anthology will become a staple in courses on gender and queer studies, Asian studies, and world literature.

"Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai have offered readers a vast and sumptuous feast. This rich collection, accompanied by the authors' informative commentary, is a powerful corrective to the often expressed opinion that the Indian tradition is either unaware of or openly hostile to same-sex love. This volume will be welcomed by scholarly and general audiences alike."
-ROBERT GOLDMAN Sarah Kailath Professor of India Studies University of California at Berkeley

"This remarkable volume brings together an encyclopedia collection of writings on the subjects of love between women and love between men in India from ancient times to the present. Vanita and Kidwai's introductory essays to each section are works of outstanding scholarship. This book will long be considered the definitive anthology of documents on same-sex love in India."
-LILLIAN FADERMAN author of To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America-A History

"This path-breaking volume presents the English-reading public with an imposing array of texts relating to an important but little-studied aspect of Indian life and literature."
-SUMIT GUHA Professor of History, Brown University

"This enchanting collection is a tribute to an ancient civilization which has always cherished love that defies conventional ideas of sanity and normality."
-ASHIS NANDY author, The Intimate Enemy, director, Center for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

About the Author

RUTH VANITA, formerly Reader, Delhi University, is Associated Professor at the University of Montana.

SALEEM KIDWAI taught medieval history at Delhi University for twenty years.

Contents:

Acknowledgement

Preface

Part I
Introduction: Ancient Indian Materials

Vyasa's Mahabharata: "Sikhandin's Sex Change" (Sanskrit)
Manikantha Jataka (Pali)
Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantra (Sanskrit)
Vatsyayana's Kamasutra (Sanskrit)

Part II
Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Sanskritic Tradition

Bhagvata Purana: The Embrace of Shiva and Vishnu (Sanskrit)
Skanda Purana: Sumedha and Somavan (Sanskrit)
Shiva Purana: The Birth of Kartikeya (Sanskrit)
Shiva Purana: The Birth of Ganesha (Sanskrit)
Somadeva Bhatta's Kathasaritsagara: Kalingasena and Somaprabha (Sanskrit)
Padma Purana: Arjuni (Sanskrit)
Ayyappa and Vavar: Celibate Friends
Krittivasa Rmayana: The Birth of Bhagiratha (Bengali)
Jagannath Das (Oriya)

Part III
Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Perso-Urdu Tradition

Amir Khusro (Persian and Hindvi)
Ziauddia Barani: The Khaljis in Love (Persian)
The Mirror of Secrets: "Akhi" Jamshed Rajgiri (Persian)
Baburnama (Turkish)
"Mutribi" Samarqandi: The Fair and the Dark Boys (Persian)
Haqiqat al-Fuqara: Poeitc Biography of "Madho Lal" Hussayn (Persian), with Hussayn's poems (Punjabi) Sarmad (Persian)
Muhammad Akram "Ghanimat" Kanjohi: Love's Sorcery (Persian)
Najmuddin Shah Mubarak "Abru": Advice to a Beloved (Urdu)
Siraj Abdul Hai "Taban": The Love Who Looked like a Beloved (Urdu)
Dargah Quli Khan: Portrait of a City (Persian)
Mir Taqi "Mir": Autobiography and Poems (Persian and Urdu)

Part IV
Introduction: Modern Indian Materials

Nazir Akbarabadi (Urdu)
Rekhti Poetry: Love between Women (Urdu)
Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali)
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee: Indira (Bengali)
The Kamasutra in the Twentieth Century
Gopabandhu Das: Poems Written in Prison (Oriya)
The New Homophobia: Ugra's Chocolate (Hindi)
M.K. Gandhi: Reply to a Query (English)
Amrita Sher-Gil: Letters (English)
Hakim Muhammad Yusuf Hasan: Do Shiza (Urdu)
"Firaq" Gorakhpuri: Poet vs. "Critic" (Urdu)
Sharada: "Farewell" (Hindi)
Suryakant Tripathi "Nirala": Kulli Bhaat (Hindi)
Josh Malihabadi: "There Will Never Be Another Like You" ( Urdu)
Ismat Chughtai: "Tehri Lakeer" (Urdu)
Rajendra Yadav: "Waiting" (Hindi)
Bhupen Khakhar: A Story of (Gujarati)
Kishori Charan Das: "Sarama's Romance" (Oriya)
Crime of Passion (English)
Shobhana Siddique: "Full to the Brim" (Hindi)
V.T. Nandakumar: Two Girls (Malayalam)
Vijay Dan Detha: "A Double Life" (Rajasthani)
Vikram Seth: Poems (English)
Nirmala Deshpande: "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (Marathi)
Vijay Tendulkar: Mitra's Story (Marathi)
Sunil Gangopadhyay: Those Days (Bengali)
H.S. Shivaprakash: Shakespeare Dreamship (Kannada)
Inez Vere Dullas: Poems (English)
Hoshang Merchant: Poems for Vivan (English)
Ambai: "One Person and Another" (Tamil)

Glossary

Translators and Contributors

Index