‘Last night, I dreamt of Hari With that melodious-voiced woman. He seemed impatient with me, And now even The song of the nightingale seems shrill.’ An erotic narrative poem that explores desire and jealousy, love experienced and love lost, Radhika Santawanam is the most recognized work of nineteenth-century poet and courtesan Muddupalani. Celebrated as a literary masterpiece in Muddupalani’s lifetime, Radhika Santawanam was banned by the British in 1910 when it was published again, a century and a half later, with critics panning its graphic descriptions of lovemaking. And, after another hundred years, this epic is now available in its entirety for the first time in English translation