Noted writer Gurcharan Das on Sunday said that characters such as Sita and Savitri were created to rein in women, and that prudishness towards sexuality in Indian society predated the Victorian period by many centuries.
The writer, who is working on a fictional memoir, Kama , said while Indian prudishness towards sexuality is often blamed on the Victorian mores, it is, however, not true. “If dharma is one’s duty to another, kama is duty to oneself,” he said at a session called ‘Talking Erotica’ at the Bangalore Literature Festival here.
“The Rig Veda starts with the desire ( kama ) of the maker to create. But why did we become prudish? Like Vatsyayana who wrote the Kama Sutra , there were many kama optimists, but early on there were the renouncers, ascetics, the kama pessimists. We did have two parallel strands,” he said.
Mr. Das argued that kama pessimists were threatened by desire that is uncontrollable. “There was then a compromise between the two camps and the compromise was that sex was acceptable as long as it was within marriage. Then came Manu, who wrote one of the Dharma Shastras that blamed women for kama , pushing us into this prudishness,” he said.
Rosalyn D’Mello, writer of the memoir A Handbook for My Lover , said writing erotica was a very good vent and instrument, especially for women to regain command over their bodies. She pointed out to the absence of female narratives on their sexuality, without the veneer of fiction.
Tirumalesh gets Atta Galatta award
Veteran Kannada writer, poet and Sahitya Akademi award winner K.V. Tirumalesh was presented the Atta Galatta award for achievement in Kannada literature. This is the second year the city-based bookshop is giving away awards.
Mr. Tirumalesh said he was happy to receive the award as he often felt as a “ parakeeya ” (an outsider) to Kannada as he lived for most parts of his life in Hyderabad.
Pyre , the translation of Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s Tamil novel, won the best fiction work in English. Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India, written by Vinay Sitapati, was adjudged the best non-fiction work in English. The two writers were not present to receive the award.
