Exploring erotica in Indian art, from the images of the Mother Goddess to tantrik diagrams, from palm leaf to celluloid, and from miniature paintings to modern art, this book finds a continuity in the motifs and the principles that shaped brush strokes, line drawings, and camera focuses down the centuries.

Drawing on theories of lovemaking from ancient Asian and Western cultures, this book provides a new aesthetics of erotic love.

Gautam has here laid out the first serious reading of Michel Foucault in relation to key Sanskrit texts, and--what may be a surprise to many--he has written the first book-length work in English on the nature and origin of the Kamasutra. Gautam also takes up the Natyasastra (the Kamasutra's twin), locating in the first the themes of sexual-erotic pleasure, and locating in the second the classical Indian view of theater, music, dance, and aesthetic pleasure. The book shows how closely intertwined the history of erotics in ancient Indian culture is with the history of theater-aesthetics. Foucault provides a framework for opening up the intellectual horizon of Indian thought; it is his distinction between ars erotics (erotic arts) and scientia sexualis (science of sexuality) that fuels Gautam's exploration of the courtesan as symbol of both erotic and aesthetic pleasure, particularly in her role as a wife to her patron, which entails the morphing of erotics into a form of theater. The scope broadens ambitiously, to an inquiry on the nature of knowledge formation, erotics, theater, and gender relations in premodern Indian society and culture--as they converged on the historical figures of the courtesan and her male counterpart, the dandy. Gautam's twining of aims and subjects--Foucault's western philosophy of pleasure and India's classic text on eros (anchored in art and aesthetics)--transforms both the modern and the ancient texts with new understandings, and as new forms of investigating erotics and subjectivity itself.

The first comprehensive assessment of the diverse sexual practices of India: transsexual, homosexual and heterosexual.

Marriage. It’s the obvious path for every girl in India. It’s supposed to define us, shape us and give meaning to our life. But does it, really? Figures show that nearly 74.1 million women in India are either divorced, separated, widowed or have never been married. And the number is on the rise. In what promises to be a path-breaking work on female identity, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, a proud-to-be-single woman herself, spills the beans on what it is like being over 30 and unattached in India, through her own compelling story and the chequered lives and journeys of nearly 3,000 urban single Indian women from all walks of life. Women, whether single by choice or circumstance, are under scathing societal pressure, invasive scrutiny and pervasive criticism. Be it the difficulty in renting an apartment, being character-assassinated by your gynaecologist, or being slut- shamed as having slept your way to the top, even when you’re successful professionally, a single woman’s life choices are the easiest to dissect. From one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Indian writing, comes a passionate narrative of grit and gumption, anger and loneliness and the daily struggle of being single in a country where the highest validation of your gender remains marriage and motherhood. Fiercely honest and painfully vulnerable, Status Single is a book that every woman and man—single or otherwise—must read.

This book explores a number of ancient Indian erotic texts that take the reader through the terrain of the beautiful, the sensual, and the most desirable. The Kama Sutra, Kokashastra, Geeta Govinda, Panchcayala, Anang Ranga, Kama Sambhav and Rasik Priya are all treatises on erotic love, a subject the author explores with grace, subtlety and a generous appreciation of the basic human urge to desire and be desired.