Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Infinite Variety: A History of Desire in India

Infinite Variety: A History of Desire in India

Menon, Madhavi

Paperback

General World HistoryIndian & South Asian HistorySexuality

ISBN10: 9387693287
ISBN13: 9789387693289
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books
Published: May 10 2018
Pages: 360
Weight: 0.92
Height: 0.75 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English

'Elegant, lucid and funny, this book will appeal to as many readers as there are desires.'--Shohini Ghosh

'The history of desire in India, ' writes Madhavi Menon in this splendid book, 'reveals not purity but impurity as a way of life. Not one answer, but many. Not a single history, but multiple tales cutting across laws and boundaries.' In Bhakti poetry, Radha and Krishna disregard marital fidelity, age, time and gender for erotic love. In Sufi dargahs, pirs (spiritual guides) who were married to women are buried alongside their male disciples, as lovers are. Vatsyayana, author of the world's most famous manual of sex, insists that he did not compose it 'for the sake of passion', and remained celibate through the writing of it. Long hair is widely seen as a symbol of sexuality; and yet, shaved off in a temple, it is a sacred offering. Even as the country has a draconian law to punish homosexuality, heterosexual men share the same bed without comment. Hijras are increasingly marginalized; yet gender has historically been understood as fluid rather than fixed.

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Indian & South Asian History

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