An inquiry into the conceptions of love in its sacred and profane dimensions as a universal theme in Indian religious and secular literature, and in particular in the "Gitagovinda", of which a new translation is included.

First published in 1978 under the Oxford University South Asian Studies Series, this work is an inquiry into the conceptions of love in its sacred and profane dimensions as a universal theme in religious and secular literature. The author proceeds from the universal to the particular, and examines the way in which the generic experience finds expression in a specific context, the Indian traditions, and the way in which these are exemplified in Jayadeva's well-known twelfth-century Sanskrit poem, the Gitagovinda. Simultaneously, the author considers the poem in its own cultural milieu and compares it with texts from other cultures. The volume also contains a new translation of the poem by Dr. Siegel.