codified the different situations which might arise in the course of a
romance. A woman, for example, would be catalogued according as she was
'one's own, another's or anyone's' and whether she was young, adolescent
or adult. Beauties with adult physiques were divided into unmarried and
married, while cutting across such divisions was yet another based on the
particular circumstances in which a woman might find herself. Such
circumstances were normally eight in number--when her husband or lover was
on the point of coming and she was ready to receive him; when she was
parted from him and was filled with longing; when he was constant and she
was thus enjoying the calm happiness of stable love; when, for the time
being, she was estranged due to some quarrel or tiff; when she had been
deceived; when she had gone to meet her lover but had waited in vain,
thereby being jilted; when her husband or lover had gone abroad and she
was faced with days of lonely waiting; and finally, when she had left the
house and gone to meet him. Ladies in situations such as these were known
as _nayikas_ and the text embodying the standard classification was the
Sanskrit treatise, the _Bharatiya Natya Sastra_. A similar analysis was
made of men--lovers or _nayakas_ being sometimes divided into fourteen
different types.

Until the fourteenth century, such writings were studies in erotics
rather than in literature--the actual situations rather than their
literary treatment being the authors' prime concern. During the fourteenth
century, however, questions of literary taste began to be discussed and
there arose a new type of Sanskrit treatise, showing how different kinds
of lover should be treated in poetry and illustrating the correct
attitudes by carefully chosen verses. In all these writings the standard
of reference was human passion. The lovers of poetry might bear only a
slight relation to lovers in real life. Many of the situations envisaged
might rarely, if ever, occur. It was sufficient that granted some