This thesis is an investigation of smara. Smara is a Sanskrit word and means memory and desire. It has no equivalent in the English language and so the attempt to understand smara becomes both a linguistic and an ontological task. / The reader is introduced to the similarities and idiosyncrasies between Western and Indian notions of memory and desire and then invited into the search for the junction between memory and desire in Indian thought. / Analysis of anthropological and philosophical texts as well as a semantic mapping of Kalidasa's masterpiece entitled Sakuntala: The Ring of Recollection, reveals not only the co-existence of memory and desire in smara but also the notion of smara as a process.

No description available.