'Those interested in demonstrating to students some of the ways in which 'continuous tradition' works - how it seeps generically 'upward' while percolating 'down' and stretching across time - will recognise this volume as an important contribution.' The Journal of Asian Studies

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.

1. Introduction Francesca Orsini
Part I. Love and Courtliness: 2. The household and the pleasure garden: love and dynastic marriage in the post-Gupta period Daud Ali
3. If music be the food of love: music, masculinity and eroticism in the Mughal mehfil Katherine B. Brown
Part II. Worldly Love and Mystical Love: 4. The shifting sands of love Christopher Shackle
5. Love, passion and reason in Faizi's Nal-Daman Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam
6. To die at the hands of love Jeevan S. Deol
Part III. Love and (Colonial) Modernity: 7. Tagore and transformations in the ideal of love Sudipta Kaviraj
8. The spaces of love and the passing of the seasons Vasudha Dalmia
Part IV. Shifting Paradigms: 9. Love in the time of Parsi theatre Anuradha Kapur
10. Love letters Francesca Orsini
11. Love's repertoire: Qurratulain Hyder's Ag ka darya Kumkum Sangari
Part V. Contemporary Lovescapes: 12. Kiss or tell? Declaring love in Hindi films Rachel Dwyer
13. Love's cup, love's thorn, love's end: the language of prem in Ghatiyali Ann Grodzins Gold
14. Kidnapping, elopement and abduction: an ethnography of love-marriage in Delhi Perveez Mody.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Asian history [HBJF], General & world history [HBG], Regional studies [GTB]