Erotic metaphors and Mystical Liteerature

[Guest guest]

Dear Vito Evola,

 

You might want to have a look at the over 200 entries contained in an

on-line bibliography of love in Indian literature/society found at:

 

http://www.acusd.edu/~lnelson/love-biblioh.html

 

This was compiled by Dr. Lance Nelson from contributions to the RISA list

serve a couple years ago.

 

Just a few relevant selections from that list are:

 

Artola, George T. 1977. "The Banner of Kamadeva." In The Banner of

Kamadeva and other Topics of Sanskrit Literature and Indian Culture, 1-12.

Bombay: Popular Prakashan.

 

De, Sushil Kumar. 1983. Treatment of Love in Sanskrit Literature. New

Delhi: Cosmo Publications.

 

Huberman, Eric. 1998. "The Para-Bhakti of the Gopis in the Rasa-Lila

Pancadhyai." Journal of Vaisnava Studies 6 (Winter):153-182. [A study of

the relation of Krishna and the gopis in the tenth book of the Bhagavata

Purana.]

 

Kinsley, David. 1979. The Divine Player: A Study of Krsna Lila. Delhi:

Motilal Banarsidass.

 

O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. 1973. Siva: The Erotic Ascetic. Oxford

University Press.

 

Pathy, Dinanath, Bhagaban Panda, and Bijaya Kumar Rath, eds. 1995.

Jayadeva and Gitagovinda in the Traditions of Orissa. New Delhi: Harman

Pub. House.

 

Ramanujan, A. K., ed. and trans. 1967. The Interior Landscape; Love Poems

>From a Classical Tamil Anthology. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.

 

Vaudeville, Charlotte. "Evolution of Love-Symbolism in

Bhagavatism." Journal of the American Oriental Society (1962): 31-40.

 

--------------------

 

A few sources not mentioned in Nelson's on-line bibliography include Tracy

Coleman's recent PhD dissertation (Brown University, circa 2000) on the

Bhagavatapurana and L.P.N. Perera's _Sexuality in Ancient India. A Study

based on the Pali Vinayapitaka_ (Colombo: PIPBS, 1993).

 

For examples of how India's traditional literary critics treated the

subject of love, see the entries "rati" and "srngara" listed in the index

of _An Annotated Bibliography of the Alamkarasastra_ (Brill, 2001).

 

best,

Tim Cahill