8.1. Representation of Body (Introduction)

Most of the schools of Indian thought always followed the path of emptiness or release from this worldly existence. They give no consideration for material world, life and even for the fleshy body also. For advaitins, the world is falsity, life is unstable and body is impure. Śaṅkara in his Sarvavedāntasiddhāntasārasaṅgraha enumerates the body at the utmost level of impurity^[1]. Similar contemplations are undoubtedly discouraging footsteps towards the human existence itself. The Indian concept of physical body is a scattered topic comprised in various literary works. Other than this, concentrated textual sources on the infinite possibilities of the physical body are very rare. According to the Kāmaśāstra branch of knowledge, it is very much important as well as relevant that the caring and fascinate approaches towards material body. As considering one of the rare works in Kāmaśāstra genre, the text Sahṛdayalīlā is an important discourse that entirely dealing about the adornments and caring of human body. It is significant to go through the thematic enormity of Sahṛdayalīlā for a better knowledge that how the body is addressed and represented in an aesthetical view.