Gaha Sattasai

The Gāhā Sattasaī or Gāhā Kośa (Sanskrit: गाथासप्तशती Gāthā Saptaśatī) is an ancient collection of Indian poems in Maharashtri Prakrit language. The poems are about love. They are written as frank monologues usually by a married woman, or an unmarried girl.[1] They often express her unrequited feelings and longings to her friend, mother or another relative, lover, husband or to herself.[1] Many poems are notable for describing unmarried girls daring for secret rendezvous to meet boys in ancient India, or about marital problems with husbands who remains emotionally a stranger to his wife and bosses over her, while trying to have affairs with other women.[2]

Gaha Sattasai is one of the oldest known Subhashita-genre text.[3] It deals with the emotions of love,[3] and has been called as "opposite extreme" to Kamasutra.[4] While Kamasutra is a theoretical work on love and sex, Gaha Sattasai is a practical compilation of examples describing "untidy reality of life" where seduction formulae don't work, love seems complicated and emotionally unfulfilling.[5] It also mentioned Radha and Krishna in one of its verse as nayika and nayak respectively.[6][7]

  1. ^ a b Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 1–2.
  2. ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 2–3.
  3. ^ a b Ludwik Sternbach (1974). Subhasita, Gnomic and Didactic Literature. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 10–14 with footnotes. ISBN 978-3-447-01546-2.
  4. ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, p. 3.
  5. ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 3–5.
  6. ^ Jash, Pranabananda (1979). "Radha-Madhava Sub-Sect in Eastern India". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 40: 177–184. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44141958.
  7. ^ Finding Radha : the quest for love. Malashri Lal, Namita Gokhale. [London]. 2018. ISBN 978-93-5305-361-1. OCLC 1078687920.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)