LOVE !

Indian art, drama, dance, films and literature (secular and religious) define love in a myriad ways.  Indian literature goes in great depth to explain love and how it can be “expressed” in dance and drama.  Bhakti movement expanded on the theme of different types of love and applied it to their vision of how we should cultivate our relationship with God.

Types of love :-

Parent and child ; sweet love ; puppy love ; passionate love ; secret lovers ; one-way love ; covetous love ; jealous love ; self sacrificing love ; shallow love (external attributes only) ; deep love (loves the inner personality) ; love born out of respect ; love inspired by awe ; chaste love ; love between friends ; blind love ; fierce love ; fake love ; unreasonable love ; desperate love ; love against ones better judgement ; divine love ; love for sake of LOVE !

Phases of love between lovers :-

Love's path is seldom straight.  Yet, for sake of drama, dance and literature, love is often seen to progress from
Admiration > desire >  indecision > uncontrollable desperation > anxiety > upset > anger > indifference > making up > surrender > passion > satisfaction.

Types of lovers :-
Love, as expressed between lovers has many common types and themes.

Nayika (female) love is...
Relationship between Krushna and Radha, as seen in Jayadeva’s poems, cycles through many of these traits.
* Sakhi – girl who just happens to be a friend – ie no sexual love
* Priya – beloved, lover – can be premarital or mistress
* Patni – wife, though in love, she is safe in the knowledge that her position in society is unassailable, she no longer feels the need to play the romantic role with her husband !
* Manini – proud, vain or lady playing “hard to get”.  
* Khandita – jilted lover.
* Tyakta – abandoned lover. 
* Bhakta – devoted lover who loves for love sake and asks nothing in return.  Meerabai and a whole host of saints are exemplary examples of this.

 
Nayaka (male) love is...
* Sakha – boy who just happens to be a friend – ie no sexual love
* “Budhhu” – youth who doesn’t understand his “sakhi” is actually in love with him and he can’t understand why she is behaving in such an odd, intimate manner with him !
* Priya – lover (pre or post marriage).
* Veera – lover who wants to show his valour – like Krishna, Arjun etc who abducted their wives to prove their strength
* Virahi – sad lover – could be due to abandonment or loss or upset caused by his lover.  Shiva, after the death of Sati can be this sort of lover who is almost out of his mind with grief !
* Pati – husband, having won his lover’s heart and made her his wife – he is secure in his marriage and no longer shows the same level of “attention” to his wife as before !

Please note, this is not an exhaustive list.  Please refer to other sources (mainly on dance and drama) for more details.

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