The Abhisāra-verses of the Sūktimuktāvalī Studies on the Sūktimuktāvalī II: Women Going to Assignations
The Abhisāra-verses of the Sūktimuktāvalī Studies on the Sūktimuktāvalī II: Women Going to Assignations

Summary/Abstract: This article is the second in a series in which we present the Sanskrit text of selected paddhatis (sections) of the Sūktimuktāvalī (smā),1 together with an annotated verse translation. In this instalment two paddhatis that are related to the theme of the abhisārikā, the young woman who sallies out (usually at night) for a secret meeting with a lover, are presented. In two appendices we discuss this topos and its early development in classical Indian poetry, especially in Sanskrit and Prakrit, also taking theoretical literature of nāṭyaśāstra, lexicography, kāmaśāstra, and alaṃkāraśāstra into consideration.

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