Nisha Ramayya’s first book is a welcome affirmation of the feminist power to be found in Hinduism. It reclaims a tradition more intellectual, open and radical than either the current brand of violent Hindu populism (Hindutva) will accept, or the Western yoga-pose market will allow. Weaving colonial history and contemporary politics and thinking through Tantric philosophy and Sanskrit etymology, the book is an urgent work of rare lyrical and critical depth, and a treatise for women, particularly of South Asian origin. Part memoir, part poetry collection and part reflection on translation both literal and metaphorical, its unclassifiability is what makes it so exciting to read.
The book’s title is taken from “the ten states of falling in love” – the translation of the Sanskrit term smaradasa by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, compiler of the 1872 Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Born in British India (his father was Surveyor-General of Bombay), he was educated at the East India Company College in Hertfordshire (now Haileybury College). He became Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University; Joseph Boden was a soldier in the East India Company who believed that the empire’s role was “to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian Religion”.
Content from our partners
