| Notes on contributors | page ix | |
| Acknowledgements | xi | |
| Note on diacritics | xii | |
| 1 | Introduction FRANCESCA ORSINI | 1 |
| PART I Love and courtliness |
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| 2 | Courtly love and the aristocratic household in early medieval India DAUD ALI |
43 |
| 3 | If music be the food of love: masculinity and eroticism in the Mughal mehfil KATHERINE BUTLER BROWN | 61 |
| PART II Worldly love and mystical love |
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| 4 | The shifting sands of love CHRISTOPHER SHACKLE | 87 |
| 5 | Love, passion and reason in Faizi's Nal-Daman MUZAFFAR ALAM AND SANJAY SUBRAHMANYAM | 109 |
| 6 | To die at the hands of love: conflicting ideals of love in the Punjabi Mirza – Sahiban cycle JEEVAN S. DEOL | 142 |
| PART III Love and (colonial) modernity |
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| 7 | Tagore and transformations in the ideals of love SUDIPTA KAVIRAJ | 161 |
| 8 | The spaces of love and the passing of the seasons: Delhi in the early twentieth century VASUDHA DALMIA | 183 |
| PART IV Shifting paradigms |
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| 9 | Love in the time of Parsi theatre ANURADHA KAPUR | 211 |
| 10 | Love letters FRANCESCA ORSINI | 228 |
| 11 | Love's repertoire: Qurratulain Hyder's River of Fire KUMKUM SANGARI | 259 |
| PART V Contemporary lovescapes |
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| 12 | Kiss or tell? Declaring love in Hindi films RACHEL DWYER | 289 |
| 13 | Love's cup, love's thorn, love's end: the language of prem in Ghatiyali ANN GRODZINS GOLD | 303 |
| 14 | Kidnapping, elopement and abduction: an ethnography of love-marriage in Delhi PERVEEZ MODY | 331 |
| Bibliography | 345 | |
| Index | 364 | |