The Dohada or Craving of Pregnant Women

HINDU SCHEMATISm allows nothing in nature or the mind, however unimportant or indecent it may seem to a sofisticated Western soul, to pass without formal statement and discussion. The two Sastras, Kamasastra, 'Rules of Love,' and the (so far) lost Steyas'stra, 'Rules of Thieving,' are familiar examples of this Hindu habit. Lurid descriptions of the female body, inflammatory, and primarily intended to inflame, pass into literature without the least sense of indecency or decadence.2 In their Hindu treatment, these matters appear, in the end, natural or even exigent; to suppress them or disguise them would leave a blank, and cast shame upon him that thinketh evil. Similarly, dohada, that is, the fancy, craving, or whim of a pregnant woman, a trivial and intimate event in woman's life history, is not allowed to flit uncaught thru Hindu thot. On the contrary it is gripped firmly, and handled without gloves, pervading poetry and fiction all the way from Ceylon to Tibet. The notion is so persistent that it becomes, in time, a mere formula, or bit of embroidery. There is scarcely a description of spring-time

Aesthetics · Art · Craving · Hinduism · Motif (music) · Psychiatry · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Gender Studies · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies

• The Composition of the Guan Wuliangshoufo-Jing

  Open Access•JOHNATHAN A SILK•Journal of Indian Philosophy•1997

  Añadir item

• Bṛhatkathā Studies

  Open Access•Donald Nelson•The Journal of Asian Studies•1978

  Añadir item