Sweaty heroes and heroines of Sanskrit "kavya" : a few words on the perception of sweat in classical Sanskrit literature

Classical Sanskrit literature (kāvya) has produced an interesting literary convention that allows a peculiar way of creation of the depicted world. One kind of the typical images we can encounter in Sanskrit kāvya poetry are the frequent descriptions of sweat beading on the faces of women. Mentions of sweaty men are less common. The author of the present paper analyzes the reasons for sweating in various literary works and indicates what message such stanzas convey, asking whether a similar phenomenon can be found in European culture. The starting point is a consideration of the treatment of the phenomenon of sweating in Indian medical literature.