Same-Sex Love in India
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Same-Sex Love in India Same-Sex Love in India Readings from Literature and History Edited by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai palgrave SAME-SEX LOVE IN INDIA Copyright © Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai, 2000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission ex cept in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. * FIrSt published in hardcover in 2000 by St. Martin's Press First PALGRAVETM edition: September 2001 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basmgstoke, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-0-312-29324-6 ISBN 978-1-137-05480-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-05480-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Same-sex love in India: readings from literature and hisrory / [edited by] Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Indic literature-Translations mto English. 2. Indic literatute (English) 3. Homosexualiry-Literary collections. 4. Love-Literary collections. 1. Vanita, Ruth. II. Kidwai, Saleem, 1951- PK5461.S26 2000 891'.I-dc21 99-087135 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First paperback edition: September 2001 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I The lamp ofhistory destroys the darkness ofignorance. -the Mahabharata For the two people who introduced me to the art ofstory-telling: my mother, Lila Marilla Paul and my great-uncle, Charles Sadgun Desai (1888-1974); and for my partner and swayamvara sakhi, Mona Bachmann. -Ruth Vanita For Siddharth Gautam Oanuary 25, 1964 to January 13, 1992), deeply missed friend, in the hope that this book may answer some ofthe many questions you used to ask. -Saleem Kidwai y' 72' 76 80 84 88 92 % 3(," ~,#.:vc:i' y..\~Q 36' Ji IOU "'J 32 ~<"(> It 28' '{ Dclh, M L H)NDI " '" " 28 RAJASTHANI ·:4gra .. .,I~ ".LUCknow . Guwahati 24' HINDI 24 vc 20 ORIYA 211 eAuranga"'d MARATHI Pur. B A • Hydclilbad OF 16 ARABIAN B N G A 5 E A 200 200 400 I I I 8' Kms. I N D I A N o C E A N 72' 80' 92 This map indicates the regions in which the languages from which our extracts are translated have a history of being most intensively spoken, read, and written. At different times, many of these languages were also in use in smaller areas in other regions. For instance, Persian and Urdu liter ature was produced in Telugu- and Punjabi-speaking areas as well. In modern India, people from every region can be found in almost every other region; hence, for example, Hindi and English are in use in most parts of the country, and there are substantial Tamil and Bengali populations in north and west India. Languages not included in this book, such as Kashmiri and Assamese, are not indicated on the map. Contents Acknowledgments Xl Preface X111 Part I Introduction: Ancient Indian Materials 1 Vyasa's Mahabharata: "Sikhandin's Sex Change" (Sanskrit) 31 Manikantha Jataka (Pali) 37 Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantra (Sanskrit) 40 Vatsyayana's Kamasutra (Sanskrit) 46 Part II Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Sanskritic Tradition 55 Bhagvata Purana: The Embrace of Shiva and Vishnu (Sanskrit) 69 Skanda Purana: Sumedha and Somavan (Sanskrit) 72 Shiva Purana: The Birth of Kartikeya (Sanskrit) 77 Shiva Purana: The Birth of Ganesha (Sanskrit) 81 Somadeva Bhatta's Kathasaritsagara: Kalingasena and Somaprabha (Sanskrit) 85 Padma Purana: Arjuni (Sanskrit) 90 Ayyappa and Vavar: Celibate Friends 94 Krittivasa Ramayana: The Birth of Bhagiratha (Bengali) 100 Jagannath Das (Oriya) 103 Part III Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Perso-Urdu Tradition 107 Arnir Khusro (Persian and Hindvi) 126 Ziauddin Barani: The Khaljis in Love (Persian) 131 The Mirror ofSecrets: "Akhi" Jamshed Rajgiri (Persian) 136 Baburnama (Turkish) 140 "Mutribi" Samarqandi: The Fair and the Dark Boys (Persian) 143 Haqiqat al-Fuqara: Poetic Biography of "Madho Lal" Hussayn (Persian), with Hussayn's poems (Punjabi) 145 Sarmad (Persian) 157 Muhammad Akram "Ghanimat" Kanjohi: Love's Sorcery (Persian) 159 Najmuddin Shah Mubarak "Abru": Advice to a Beloved (Urdu) 161 Siraj Aurangabadi: The Garden ofDelusion (Urdu) 169 Mir Abdul Hai "Taban": The Lover Who Looked like a Beloved (Urdu) 173 Dargah Quli Khan: Portrait ofa City (Persian) 175 Mir Taqi "Mir": Autobiography and Poems (Persian and Urdu) 184 PartN Introduction: Modern Indian Materials 191 Nazir Akbarabadi (Urdu) 218 Rekhti Poetry: Love between Women (Urdu) 220 Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali) 229 Bankim Chandra Chatterjee: Indira (Bengali) 233 The Kamasutra in the Twentieth Century 236 Gopabandhu Das: Poems Written in Prison (Oriya) 241 The New Homophobia: Ugra's Chocolate (Hindi) 246 M. K. Gandhi: Reply to a Query (English) 253 Arnrita Sher-Gil: Letters (English) 257 Hakim Muhammad Yusuf Hasan: Do Shiza (Urdu) 260 "Firaq" Gorakhpuri: Poet vs. "Critic" (Urdu) 264 Sharada: "Farewell" (Hindi) 267 Suryakant Tripathi "Nirala": Kulli Bhaat (Hindi) 270 Josh Malihabadi: "There Will Never Be Another Like You" (Urdu) 274 Ismat Chughtai: "Tehri Lakeer" (Urdu) 283 Rajendra Yadav: "Waiting" (Hindi) 289 Bhupen Khakhar: A Story (Gujarati) 294 Kishori Charan Das: "Sarama's Romance" (Oriya) 298 Crime of Passion (English) 301 Shobhana Siddique: "Full to the Brim" (Hindi) 304 V T. Nandakumar: Two Girls (Malayalam) 311 Vijay Dan Detha: "A Double Life" (Rajasthani) 318 Vikram Seth: Poems (English) 325 Nirmala Deshpande: "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (Marathi) 327 Vijay Tendulkar: Mitra's Story (Marathi) 332 Sunil Gangopadhyay: Those Days (Bengali) 336 H. S. Shivaprakash: Shakespeare Dreamship (Kannada) 342 Inez Vere Dullas: Poems (English) 347 Hoshang Merchant: Poems for Vivan (English) 349 Ambai: "One Person and Another" (Tamil) 352 Glossary 357 Translators and Contributors 363 Index 365 Acknowledgments Project of this kind is made possible through support, help, and suggestions A from many people. We can list only some of them here but we thank also the ones not listed; we apologize if we have inadvertently omitted anyone. We both are grateful to Anannya DasGupta, Asad R. Kidwai, and Salim Yusufji for research assistance and help with translation; to Sukirat Anand, Shohini Ghosh, Mu raleedharan, Sanju Mahale, Bina Fernandez, Sopan Muller, Ashwini Sukthankar, Sand hya Luther, and Sumanyu Satpathy for help with locating texts and authors; to Kirti Singh and Suzanne Goldenberg for lending us their homes in Delhi to work on the book; to Carla Petievich, Kathy Hansen, and Indrani Chatterjee for their warm support and helpful suggestions. We also thank the many people in India and all over the world who responded with helpful suggestions to our inquiries regarding texts in different lan guages. We are very thankful to Atiya Habib Kidwai for getting the map drawn at short notice. Ruth Vanita is grateful to the University of Montana for a summer research grant, which was the only funding we received for this project. I would like to thank Kumkum Roy, Anthony Tribe, Aditya Behl, Indrani Chatterjee, and Sumit Guha for reading and commenting helpfully on drafts of my writing at various stages; Harish Trivedi for sug gesting the Nirala text; H. S. Shivaprakash, Uday Kumar, Prabha Dixit, Uma Chakravarty, and Alan Sponberg for helpful discussions; Suresh M. S., Kiran Kaushik, Archana Varma, Ashok Row Kavi, Sandip Roy, Christopher and Mrs. Anderson, and Richard Drake for help in locating information. I am deeply grateful to Indrani Chatterjee for spending many days at the Calcutta library tracking down and copying obscure texts. My colleagues at the University of Montana, especially Bruce Bigley, G. G. Weix, Barbara Andrew, Phil Fan dozzi, Paul Dietrich, and Casey Charles, have been uniformly supportive. Asha George provided much help, encouragement, and emotional support. Thanks to my family and to my friends, especially Sujata Raghubir, Shohini Ghosh, Mary Katzenstein, Minakshi Sethi, Chris Cuomo, and Darshan and Jetty Kang. Finally, my partner, Mona Bachmann, read and usefully commented on numerous drafts of my writings, located many materials, fruitfully discussed ideas with me, patiently listened to my ravings, and kept me happy and hopeful through difficult times. Saleem Kidwai would like to thank all those who shared in the pains and pleasures of this project. Particularly, I want to thank Sadiq R. Kidwai for his patience in guiding me through the Urdu materials and Khalid Faruqi for making the Jamia Millia Islamia xii ~ Same-Sex Love in India library accessible to me; Luis Arbeloa for his affection and generosity; C. M. Nairn, Muzaffar Alam, Matin Miyan of Firangi Mahal, Khaliq Anjum, and Urvashi Butalia for their help; Parag Pradhan for his effort in locating some authors and helping us get their permission; Ashwini Deshpande and Mehrdad Kia for their help with translations; Yusuf Saeed and Iffat Fatima for source materials; friends like Arun Kapur, Lawrence Cohen, Manjari Dingwaney, Sanju Mahale, Shobha Aggarwal, Shohini Ghosh, Siddhartha Dube, Sujata Raghubir, Sukirat Anand, Suzanne Goldenberg, and Tuhin Chaturvedi, whose support never wavered; Carla Petievich, Kathy Hansen, and Mona Bachmann for their friendship and hospitality; Sushila Sahai and Radha Kumar for pro viding a warm home for me and the book. And finally my family-my sisters Azra, Hafsa, and Sufta and my nephews Jamal, Saif, and Yasir for their love and