The emergence of courtly love in Europe -- Aristocratic speech, the Gregorian reform, and the first troubadour -- Trobairitz and troubadours and the shadow religion -- Narratives of true love and twelfth-century common sense -- Points of comparison -- The Bhakti troubadour: Vaishnavism in twelfth-century Bengal and Orissa -- Elegance and compassion in Heian Japan
Summary
Here, Reddy illuminates the birth of a cultural movement that managed to regulate selfish desire and render it innocent - or innocent enough. Reddy strikes out from this historical moment on an exploration of love, contrasting the medieval development of romantic love in Europe with contemporaneous eastern traditions in Bengal
