The Seduction of Shiva; Tales of Life and Love

The god Shiva is utterly seduced by Mohini the enchanting female form assumed by the god Vishnu during the churning of the ocean for nectar. A barber employs wit and wile and rumours of witchcraft to win his wife back from the lustful attentions of their king. The celestial nymph Urvashi curses the Pandava prince Arjuna when he rejects her sexual advances. A woman caught in adultery befools her elders with a religious ritual. A man with a disagreeable missing wife insists nevertheless that she be recovered by his ruler who has a similar problem. Refined colloquial romantic cynical satirical by turns these stories of erotic love elegantly translated from the Sanskrit classics make a sustained argument for the secular ends of life - of desire tempered with discrimination and pleasure with restraint. About the Author Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar is a well-known translator of Sanskrit classics. Educated at the universities of Allahabad and Oxford he was for many years a career diplomat serving as the Indian high commissioner in Kenya and the Seychelles minister in the United States and ambassador in Portugal and Yugoslavia. His translations from the Sanskrit include The Shattered Thigh and Other Plays Tales of the Ten Princes Hitopadesa Simhasana Dvatrimsika Subhashitavali Kama Sutra and Three Satires from Ancient Kashmir all published as Penguin Classics.