When God is a customer : Telugu courtesan songs by Kṣetrayya and others

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書誌事項

When God is a customer : Telugu courtesan songs by Kṣetrayya and others

edited and translated by A.K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman

University of California Press, 1994

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

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注記

Includes bibliographical references and index

内容説明・目次

巻冊次

: cloth ISBN 9780520080683

内容説明

These south Indian devotional poems show the dramatic use of erotic language to express a religious vision. Written by men during the 15th to 18th centuries, the poems adopt a female voice, the voice of a courtesan addressing her customer. That customer, it turns out, is the deity, whom the courtesan teases for his infidelities and cajoles into paying her more money. Brazen, autonomous, fully at home in her body, she merges her worldly knowledge with the deity's transcendent power in the act of making love. This volume is the first substantial collection in English of these Telugu writings, which are still part of the standard repertoire of songs used by classical south Indian dancers. A foreword provides context for the poems, investigating their religious, cultural and historical significance. Explored, too, are the attempts to contain their explicit eroticism by various apologetic and rationalizing devices.
巻冊次

: pbk ISBN 9780520080690

内容説明

How is it that this woman's breasts glimmer so clearly through her saree? Can't you guess, my friends? What are they but rays from the crescents left by the nails of her lover pressing her in his passion, rays now luminous as the moonlight of a summer night? These South Indian devotional poems show the dramatic use of erotic language to express a religious vision. Written by men during the fifteenth to eighteenth century, the poems adopt a female voice, the voice of a courtesan addressing her customer. That customer, it turns out, is the deity, whom the courtesan teases for his infidelities and cajoles into paying her more money. Brazen, autonomous, fully at home in her body, she merges her worldly knowledge with the deity's transcendent power in the act of making love. This volume is the first substantial collection in English of these Telugu writings, which are still part of the standard repertoire of songs used by classical South Indian dancers. A foreword provides context for the poems, investigating their religious, cultural, and historical significance. Explored, too, are the attempts to contain their explicit eroticism by various apologetic and rationalizing devices. The translators, who are poets as well as highly respected scholars, render the poems with intelligence and tenderness. Unusual for their combination of overt eroticism and devotion to God, these poems are a delight to read.

目次

Preface  Introduction  The Songs ANNAMAYYA  RUDRAKAVI  KSETRAYYA  SARAN GAP ANI  Poem to Lord KONKANESVARA  Notes to the Text  Notes to the Songs  Index of Refrains

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