Gaha Sattasai

The Gāhā Sattasaī or Gāhā Kośa (Sanskrit: गाथासप्तशती Gāthā Saptaśatī) is an ancient collection of Indian poems in Maharashtri Prakrit language. The poems are about love. They are written as frank monologues usually by a married woman, or an unmarried girl. They often express her unrequited feelings and longings to her friend, mother or another relative, lover, husband or to herself. Many poems are notable for describing unmarried girls daring for secret rendezvous to meet boys in ancient India, or about marital problems with husbands who remains emotionally a stranger to his wife and bosses over her, while trying to have affairs with other women.

Gaha Sattasai is one of the oldest known Subhashita-genre text. It deals with the emotions of love, and has been called as "opposite extreme" to Kamasutra. While Kamasutra is a theoretical work on love and sex, Gaha Sattasai is a practical compilation of examples describing "untidy reality of life" where seduction formulae don't work, love seems complicated and emotionally unfulfilling. It also mentioned Radha and Krishna in one of its verse as nayika and nayak respectively.

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