Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Premodern India

Leisure is a corollary to pleasure. Essays in this historical exploration trace how leisure and recreation were often imagined and celebrated during premodern times, from the ancient to the precolonial period. This book takes into account the differential access to leisure and pleasure based on class and gender where masculinity is projected through manly sports and femininity though beauty and indulgence in the projection of recreation, entertainment and luxury. The counter-discourse representing labour for those who cater for this leisure is invisibilized as is their transactional nature. The volume dwells on the attitudes, prescribed and proscribed, and brings to the fore the differences across religious ideologies such as Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jaina and Muslim in various periods. Further it looks at leisure in the various classes and cultural spaces such as the elite, women, the king in the bed chamber, the court with dancing girls, public areas such as orchards and gardens and performance spaces.

Professor Seema Bawa teaches at the Department of History, University of Delhi and specialises in the history of South Asian art and culture. Her books include Gods, Men and Women: Gender and Sexuality in Early Indian Art and Religion and Art of the Chamba Valley, A.D. 700-1300. Her areas of research focus on Indian Art Ancient Indian Art and Iconography; Western Himalayan Art and Religion and Modern and Contemporary Indian Art. She was the recipient of DAAD Fellowship to read at the University of Bonn.

Introduction: Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Pre Modern India: Seema Bawa
1. Wine, Gods, Men and Women: Leisure in the Visual Culture of Early India: Seema Bawa
2. Dicing and Wrestling: Pursuit of leisure through chance and combat in early India: Suchandra Ghosh
3. Hunting and Dice-Game: Where Leisure Intersected with Masculine Aspiration in Early India: Smita Sahgal
4. A Royal Huntsman. The ambiguity of the hunt as aristocratic pastime in South Asia and its representation in Revanta imagery: Marion Frenger
5. Leisure in Ancient Indian Drama: An Act of Proximity with Nature and Self: Mrityunjay Prabhakar
6. From Service to Entertainment: Music in Early Tamil India: TKV Subramaniam
7. Visualizing Leisure in Jain Manuscript Paintings from Western India: Patrick Kruger
8. Transitions in Leisure: Gardens, Hunting and Public Entertainment: Vipul Singh
9. Gardens As Urban Leisure Landscape in Early India: Prem Kumar
10. Sleep as Leisure: Perspectives from Persian Literature: Farhat Nasreen
11. Poetic Pleasure, She'r-o Sha'iri, in Women's Urdu compositions: A Neglected Chapter at the Margins of Gendered Histories: Raziuddin Aquil
12. The Last Mushaira of Delhi: A Study of a Text and Recreation of a Past: Rakhshanda Jalil