NATURALITY IN 'UNNATURAL' HUMAN DESIRE: CONCEPTUALISING HOMOSEXUALITY IN ANCIENT INDIA

Ajisha C

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i1.2024.4775

Authors

Ajisha C Department of History, University of Hyderabad

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i1.2024.4775

Keywords:

Desire, Homosexuality, Kamasutra, Normative texts, Puranas, Un-naturality

Abstract [English]

ABSTRACT

In the urge to keep the society in equilibrium with ‘natural order’, all the human behavior were measured in the fulcrum of morality, as good and bad, natural and unnatural, higher and lower ends throughout the history of human civilization. The evolving trend and the conception regarding the human desire, especially the sexual needs, through the prism of liberal sense in the present days are really a ray of hope. The current mood all over the world regarding the sexual behavior largely is, as a personal choice, biological need and normalized individual instinct. This moderate approach is the byproduct of several movements and debates against the classical social conditioning and cultural construction about sex, which was conservatively approved act, strictly under conjugality. The historical discourses handed over regarding this topic is dynamic and still relevant and explorable pertaining to each space, time and context. The western conception would be different from south Asian concepts, progressive, sometimes regressive, rewriting, modifying, sometimes remining parallel to each epoch. The location of homosexuals or any ‘unnatural’ categories of sexual dysfunctions are always at the lower ends of social morals. The early Indian trends are of no excuse but they handled it in a different way in different contexts. In order to understand this positioning, we need to analyze thoroughly the early Indian literature through critical lenses. This article is mainly looking and analyzing the texts of early India to decode the al-time vāda of homosexuality, mostly based on the primary sources.

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