vintageindianclothing: Women lovers are depicted exchanging love letters, visiting one another by
vintageindianclothing: Women lovers are depicted exchanging love letters, visiting one another by day in palanquins and by night via ladders that ascend to rooftops, wearing each other’s clothing, dressing and undressing each other, inviting and entertaining other female couples, eating together, visiting gardens where they swing together, enjoy the beauties of nature, and sometimes engage in sex outdoors - Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture by Ruth Vanita. It is fairly commonplace to see frank depictions of heterosexuality in Indian Art & Literature. On the other hand it is a little difficult to say how Indian tradition views homosexuality, especially lesbianism, given texts often have stray references (though a lot of this is discussed by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai). The paintings today (one of which dates to the early 18th century) are however more explicit than the usually homosocial or vaguely suggestive depiction of women in miniature paintings.Though it is hard to say who the paintings are intended for, whether they are depictions of court life or meant for a private collection. The extract today refers to urdu rekhti poetry (a lot of it produced in the 17th/18th century) Separately I always wonder about those translucent cloaks/kurtas (pic 1), sometimes its hard to make out all the elements of a costume. -- source link
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