Her Kama: Women, Intimacy and Identity

Her Kama: Women, Intimacy and Identity is a fearless reinterpretation of Kama Kalpa—a 1924 work by P Thomas that boldly explored the rituals, sensuality, and spiritual power of love in Indian life. Long before prudishness crept in, India wrote poems about pleasure, worshipped desire in temples, and saw the body as a gateway to the divine. Drawing from Sanskrit classics like the Kama Sutra, Ananga Ranga, Rati Rahasya, the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and the writings of Kalidasa and Kautilya, this book presents a vivid portrait of love in all its dimensions—spiritual, social, and sensual. It is also a bold exploration of gender and society across millennia, tracing the arc of Indian womanhood from the empowered Vedic era to the constraints of medieval norms.