Sexual Life in Ancient India PDF Download

Author: Johann Jakob Meyer
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House
ISBN: 9788120806382
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Author: Durba Mitra
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691196346
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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"During the colonial period, Indian intellectuals--philologists, lawyers, scientists and literary figures--all sought to hold a mirror to their country. Whether they wrote novels, polemics, or scientific treatises, all sought a better understanding of society in general and their society in particular. Curiously, female sexuality and sexual behavior play an outside role in their writing. The figure of the prostitute is ubiquitous in everything from medical texts and treatises on racial evolution to anti-Muslim polemic and studies of ancient India. In this book, Durba Mitra argues that between the 1840s and the 1940s, the new science of sexuality became foundational to the scientific study of Indian social progress. The colonial state and an emerging set of Bengali male intellectuals extended the regulation of sexuality to far-reaching projects that sought to define what society should look like and how modern citizens should behave. An exploration of this history of social scientific thought offers new perspectives to understand the power of paternalistic and deeply violent claims about sexual norms in the postcolonial world today. These histories reveal the enduring authority of scientific claims to a tradition that equates social good with the control of women's free will and desire. Thus, they managed to dramatically reorganize their society around upper-caste Hindu ideals of strict monogamy"--

Author: D D Kosambi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000653471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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First published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.

Author: Otto Kiefer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136181989
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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First published in 2001. The psychological basis of the Roman Empire was a ruthless, frequently sadistic 'will to power'. This impulse is highly manifest in Ancient Roman attitudes towards sex. After describing women’s position in Roman society, Keifer skilfully surveys the crypto-sexual satisfaction derived by Romans from a range of activities.

Author: Johann Jakob Meyer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113688906X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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First Published in 2005. This is book attempts to give a true and vivid account of the life of woman in ancient India, based upon the immense masses of material imbedded in the two great Epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Author: Haran Chandra Chakladar
Publisher: Asian Educational Services
ISBN: 9788120605244
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Studies In Vatsyayana`S Kamasutra.

Author: Saba Dewan
Publisher: Context
ISBN: 9395073594
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 804

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About the Book A NUANCED AND POWERFUL MICROHISTORY SET AGAINST THE SWEEP OF INDIAN HISTORY. Dharmman Bibi rode into battle during the revolt of 1857 shoulder to shoulder with her patron lover Babu Kunwar Singh. Sadabahar entranced even snakes and spirits with her music, but eventually gave her voice to Baba Court Shaheed. Her foster mothers Bullan and Kallan fought their malevolent brother and an unjust colonial law all the way to the Privy Council—and lost everything. Their great-granddaughter Teema paid for the family’s ruination with her childhood and her body. Bindo, Asghari, Phoolmani, Pyaari … there are so many stories in this family. And you—one of the best-known tawaifs of your times—remember the stories of your foremothers and your own. This is a history, a multi-generational chronicle of one family of well-known tawaifs with roots in Banaras and Bhabua. Through their stories and self-histories, Saba Dewan explores the nuances that conventional narratives have erased, papered over or wilfully rewritten. In a not-so-distant past, tawaifs played a crucial role in the social and cultural life of northern India. They were skilled singers and dancers, and also companions and lovers to men from the local elite. It is from the art practice of tawaifs that kathak evolved and the purab ang thumri singing of Banaras was born. At a time when women were denied access to the letters, tawaifs had a grounding in literature and politics, and their kothas were centres of cultural refinement. Yet, as affluent and powerful as they were, tawaifs were marked by the stigma of being women in the public gaze, accessible to all. In the colonial and nationalist discourse of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this stigma deepened into criminalisation and the violent dismantling of a community. Tawaifnama is the story of that process of change, a nuanced and powerful microhistory set against the sweep of Indian history.

Author: Hans Licht
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136182268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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First published in 2001. From Ancient Greece, modern Western civilisation has derived many of its artistic philosophical and pollical ideas. But, in certain areas of sexual tolerance and inventiveness, we still have much to learn from the land and age which produced the most flourishing and creative culture of the ancient world. Professor Hans Licht, in this erudite and fascinating book, discusses in full every aspect of the Ancient Greek's sexual life.

Author: Shefali Chandra
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822352273
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Chandra explores how English became an Indian language during the colonial period of 1850-1930. Using archival and literary sources, she focuses on elite language education for girls and women.

Author: Eliza F. Kent
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195165071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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At the height of British colonialism, conversion to Christianity was a path to upward mobility for Indian low-castes and untouchables, especially in the Tamil-speaking south of India. Kent examines these conversions, focusing especially on the experience of women converts and the ways in which conversion transformed gender roles and expectations.