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]
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