Love in South Asia

Love may be a universal feeling but culture and language play a crucial role in defining it. Idioms of love have a long history and within every society there is always more than one discourse be it prescriptive religious or gender-specific available at any given time. This book explores the idioms of love that have developed in South Asia those words conceptual clusters images and stories which have interlocked and grown into repertoires. Including essays by literary scholars historians anthropologists film historians and political theorists the collection unravels the interconnecting strands in the history of the concept (shringara ''ishq prem and ''love'') and maps their significance in literary oral and visual traditions. Each essay examines a particular configuration and meaning of love on the basis of genre tellers and audiences and the substantial introduction sets out the main repertoires presenting the student of South Asia with an important cultural history.