2200-year-old Indian sculpture. A taller woman places her hand on a man’s shoulder. Both stand relaxed, intimate, unashamed. No anxiety about proximity. No panic about the body. Much later, Victorian morality would recode such imagery as “improper,” exporting rigid ideas of modesty across colonised societies. But ancient Indian art often operated with a different grammar: sensuality without guilt, ornament without shame, human intimacy without moral hysteria. These sculptures are not merely decorative objects. They are evidence that cultural attitudes toward the body were once far more fluid and confident than many modern narratives admit.