Love through the eyes in the ancient Indian poetry of Amaru

Abstract

One of the aesthetic processes that characterize the poetry of ancient India is the gaze, which has become the receptacle of feelings and emotions into literary theory of rasa. The eyes are the most used poetic and topical vehicle into ancient Indian poetry. In this poetic development there are elements of literary analysis and creation framed in the method called rasa or “aesthetic pleasure”. This literary theory consists of savoring poetry through eight essential flavors. The main one is the taste of love, which is divided in turn into “the love of union” (saṁbhoga) and “the love in separation” (vipralambha). For this love to emerge and be savored, lovers have to contemplate each other. My work focuses on this aspect, on the gaze. My main objective is to analyze some Amaru’s poems on this topic and thus elucidate, with support of rhetorical figures and poetic resonance, the importance of the eyes in the poetry of ancient India.