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Sanskrit literature. Some of the epithets and vocatives used by the Sanskrit poets in a description of or conversation with a woman character would appear disrespectful and indecent today; nay, they might lead to court proceedings if used in modern writing. How could then the Sanskrit poets use them? The open references particularly in dramatic dialogues call for an explantion. The dramas were evidently written for stage performances and were staged at a king's order or on the occasions of religious holidays and festivals and in celebration of seasons, harvests or important events. Men from all ranks of society, including old people, children and attended them. Why did they not object to the open references to references to the heroine's breasts and buttocks in the poetic passages or conversation in the dramas. The point, I think, is obvious. Ideas of cultural decency do change from age to age. So, it is not true that the Sanskrit poets or their heroes are deliberately obscene or sex-mad; the truth seems to be that the modern readers have no perspective; men in the past age used the words and allusions in frank acceptance of the facts of life and in open-appreciation of the beauty of the female form; while the modern readers seem to read in them obscene motives and, ignoring the social conventions in the past age, accuse the old heroes of indecent attitude to women.
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It is possible to look at the epithets and vocatives from another angle yet. Pururavas, in the third act of the Vikramorvasiya, expresses a loving desire that Urvast came gently and closed his eyes from behind with her fingers.33 Urvasi who was standing at the back of the king, invisible by her divine powers, likes the idea and acts accordingly. Pururavas recognises the loving touch and says to the Vidusaka who is by his side, 'My friend, this is the maiden with beautiful thighs born from the thigh of the sage Nārāyana 24 If the adjective used by the king were to be taken literally it would be a puzzle how the king could know that Urvali had a pair of beautiful thighs from the touch of her fingers on his eyes! It appears, therefore, that many words referring to the parts of a woman's body had lost their expressed sense at least in poetic and romantic contexts, and come to indicate the metaphorical sense of 'beautiful'. 'Varoru' in the example cited does not really express the sense of 'thighs' but indicates only 'a beautiful woman'. These linguistic considerations are important for art criticism as well.
The detailed description of the physical beauty of a woman which is of common occurrance in Sanskrit literature may now be viewed from a correct angle. In the first place, such descriptions of a woman's beauty are the stuff of poetic writing, and would be found, with variations, in all literatures. Secondly, the basic intention in them is aesthetic, that of conveying a sense and feeling of beauty. Thirdly, the poetic imagination has always looked upon woman as an embodiment of loveliness, an image of beauty, a figure of irresistible charm and attraction. Thou art a handiwork of God' says Tagore about the woman. Two thousand years before him Kalidasa conceived Urvast as created out of moon, cupid or the vernal season.20 About Sakuntala he thought that the Creator God could not have dared to fashion
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