Reviews

Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India by Giti Thadani

hopef's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

The author set out her thesis in the first chapter and explored it reasonably for the length of the volume.

jajwalya's review against another edition

5.0

I understand the lens of the novel; the current looking back at the currents of the past. I understand the thrill of knowing the mere existence of the stories in some shape or form, and the possibilities of expanding the oft-repeated narratives, and yet, and yet, each new discovery is encased in impenetrable shells of loss and sadness of the known becoming unknown over all these eons. That is to say, that which is lost will never be grasped in the future tangibly. I wished to be a historian of such a subject for a long long time, of these lesser known stories if only for my own curiosity and wish fulfillment, but I hardly think of myself to be resilient enough to face that anger and sadness without drowning in it. Of course, it could be declaimed completely, and the norms, the acceptances struck anew regardless of what the ancient texts are purported to say from the revisions of multiple n-ary sources.

Now the conundrum lies in the translations, meanings siphoned out, contextual references, patterns eked out just because of the dearth of the material in the first place.

But hey, at least I know now to flirt in Sanskrit too, so yay?

justabean_reads's review against another edition

4.0

The first third is quite academic and rather dense, but I love Thandani's research and conclusions. It gives voice to a group that I don't think many of us Western Lesbians have thought much about before, and beautifully describes thousands of years of tradition and mythology. The story of how the heteropatriarchy wiped a lot of that out is pretty brutal though.