#devadasis

Ok guys I’d researched about this last year as a side project, and after seeing how virtually nobody knows about this cruel system, I would like to wake everyone up (bangs cymbal on face).

Known as Devadasi and Krishnadasi in South India, Jogini in Maharashtra and Mukhie in North India, devadasi literally means “God’s servant”. Traditionally, a devadasi was a person (mostly women and trans people, but there are instances of male devadasis too) who were “married” to god. There was a proper procession, wherein the person was then married to the local deity. Such women were also called “Akhandasaubhagyavati” - or She who is eternally fortunate - for they could never be widowed (Indians believed a woman’s happiness is linked to her husband - they still believe this).

While we find the first mention of a devadasi in Buddhist scriptures as Buddha’s disciple Amrapali, there is no mention at all of this system in any Hindu scripture (this practice is followed in Hinduism) at all. Anyways, being a devadasi was a great honour, since you were actually god’s wife, and were treated as such. Nobody could dare even question a devadasi, for their word was above law (although this was on a local basis).

They were extremely skilled dancers, musicians and artists, and routinely danced in temples. They performed all religious duties in the village, and they were the only ones allowed to enter the garbhagriha (the place where the idol was stationed) in temples. Many of them are known to be lesbians and bisexuals, but they were allowed to practice their sexuality without any hindrance since ultimately their true soulmate was believed to be god. There are also instances of devadasis practising polyandry or remarrying! For example, the second wife of Krishnadevaraya (Emperor of Vijayanagar), called Chinnamma, was a devadasi, who later married him.

However, slowly this practice started taking the form of the cruel system it today is. The age for being a devadasi was removed (most women became devadasis at the age of sixteen), and it became common to see little girls performing devadasi duties. The final blow came from the British Empire. The British couldn’t stomach the thought of “married” women being sexually active, and hence termed all devadasis as prostitutes. They even encouraged them to be treated as such!

From the nineteenth century onwards, devadasis began losing their respect and honour, and were increasingly used for prostitution and slavery. The only way for a devadasi to improve their condition became marrying a rich, influential man, or being his mistress. However, the worst was yet to come.

Today, this system is mostly practiced in Karnataka by members of the Yellamma cult. Girls as young as 3 years are forced into the system, which had become a family bondage - from grandmother to mother to daughter - and become part of a brutal sex racketeering system. Devadasis are regularly tortured and raped, and the intergenerational trauma they go through is so severe that it takes years of rehabilitation and therapy just to get them to trust other people again. This practice has been banned by the Indian Supreme Court, but is still prevalent in South India.

There are many people who have helped devadasis, and forwarded their cause. The most popular example is Sudha Murthy, Indian author and co-founder of the India based IT company Infosys. She has been helping the devadasi community for the past 40 years now, rescuing them from the clutches of sex slavery and providing them with employment and education. Another example is Sitavva Joddati, a victim of this system. She joined MASS (Mahila Abhivrutti evam Samrakshana Sanstha - Institution for Empowerment and Security of Women) when she escaped at the age of 17, and has since then rescued over 50,000 devadasis and inculcated them into mainstream society, with over 4000 devadasis joining MASS in its initiative.

People today are split into two factions on devadasis. Many want this system to end for good, with devadasis being inculcated into society and provided with the necessary tools to start life anew; while some want it to be revived - they want devadasis to be skilled in dance and music again, participating in cultural and heritage programs, with the govt. supporting them. (i prefer the former)

Two Different Cultures Merged Into One – Kathak

Kathak originated from the tradition known as Katha.

The Sanskrit lexicon defines as ‘storyteller or narrator of drama’.According to certain historical evidence, this dance came into being from a particular social community named kathak, who were the custodians of this dance form. Professional story-tellers of this caste dramatized the epic and religious stories with full expression, miming and…

Una Devadasis (ancella della Dea), cioè una bajadera di casta bramina, vanta, anzitutto, una nobiltà millenaria, poichè non può essere che figlia di una bajadera, come i suoi figli non possono essere che bajadere, se femmine, musici e letterati, se maschi. E’ facile comprendere come, anche solo per istinto ereditario, s’affini in una Devadasis l’arte del gesto, del passo, dell’atteggiamento, l’arte della voce e della maschera, l’attitudine letteraria a penetrare, commentare insuperabilmente i capolavori la poesia indiana.

Nata, cresciuta nel Tempio, educata con una regola inflessibile, essa non ha bisogno di imparare le lingue sacre: il sanscrito, il pali, le son famigliari fin dall’infanzia; le strofe dei Pouranas, i poemi storici e sacri indiani, cullano i suoi primi sonni; i suoi primi passi si muovono istintivamente a ritmo di danza, le sue prime parole a un ritmo di canto e poesia, i begli occhi tenebrosi si sono appena schiusi alla luce e riflettono per immagini prime la favolosa architettura del recinto sacro, gli Dei, gli eroi, i mostri di pietra e di metallo, la madre, le sorelle officianti e danzanti nelle cerimonie e nei cortei. Prigioniera nel Tempio fino a quindici anni, essa limita l’orizzonte dell’universo tra lo stagno dei coccodrilli sacri e l’alte mura vigilate dagli elefanti di pietra. La sua carne, la sua anima s’accrescono esclusivamente di religiosità. Tutta la sua educazione è intesa a fare di lei la viva scultura del Tempio.

Il fiore della sua bellezza, appena pubere, può, deve anzi, essere raccolto da un protettore di stirpe nobile, un nabab che sarà legato a lei, ufficilmente, con un vincolo sacro e indissolubile. Costui deve dotare la bajadera di un patrimonio cospicuo, riconoscerla, beneficarla nell’eredità, subito dopo la moglie e prima dei figli, obbligarsi ad una offerta annua verso il Tempio. Questo legame non esclude, anzi inizia da parte della bajadera un tenor di vita che a noi parrebbe della più spudorata infedeltà. Perchè da quel giorno essa è addetta al culto di Ramba-Devi, la Venere del Paradiso d’Indra, attende a cerimonie non descrivibili, ed è offerta dal sacerdote a tutti quei devoti – d’alta casta – che pagano un obolo adeguato, il quale obolo non va alla Devadasis, ma al tesoro del Tempio…

Oimè! A questo punto un occidentale non si ritrova più e pensa che nel suo paese un tempio, un sacerdote, una sacerdotessa di tal fatta corrispondono a una nomenclatura assai meno arcana e assai meno rispettabile.

Ma è tutto questione di latitudine. Latitudine nello spazio e nel tempo. Sono i venti secoli di cristianesimo che dinnanzi a tali consuetudini ci fanno arrossire di pudore o sorridere di malizia. Il bramino non arrosisce, né sorride, come non sorrideva, né arrossiva il pagano che giungeva in Pafo e in Amatunta e offriva l’obolo al tempio famoso. E’ risaputa l’identità di origine dei greci e degli indiani, la parentela che unisce la teogonia bramina alla teogonia ellenica. Ora Ramba-Devi, con il suo Eros dal volto fosco, armato non di strali, ma di serpenti cobra, è la Venere del paradiso di Indra, la sorella certa della Venere greca che sopravvive nella terra di Brama mentre l’altra si è dileguata per sempre dinnanzi all’avvento della nemica: la Vergine Madre. Noi, devoti della Madre di Dio, affermazione dello spirito, negazione della carne, non possiamo comprendere il culto erotico; tutta la nostra intima essenza foggiata secondo una morale due volte millenaria, sussulta, si rivolta, vedendo ricomparire dalla notte dei tempi la sorella dell’antica avversaria.

Per questo non possiamo comprendere una devadasis, né definirla. Bisognerebbe aggiungere all’attrice somma, alla mima insuperabile, all’erudita, alla cultrice di poesia, la figura della sacerdotessa invasata, della menade folle. Ma arrossiamo di pudore o sorridiamo di malizia.

It is important to note that more than any other period in the history of Tamil culture, the non-conjugal sexuality of devadasis became problematic during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Again, as Soneji notes:

On the one hand, the male body needed to be secured from pollution and corruption, strengthened by its commitments to (and control over) the world of monogamous, domesticated female sexuality. On the other hand, economic security and power continued to be expressed through displays of nonconjugal female sexuality that were emblematic of engagements with colonial authority and traditional expressions of sexual virility… (R)einventions of masculinity and citizenship from both within and without the devadasi community led to their (devadasis’) disappearance from public culture and rendered hegemonic the authoritarian morality of the patrifocal domicile. (Soneji, 2012, pp. 94–95)

Thus, the moral and sexual economies of nationalist modernity could not accommodate either the dasi or her art.2 Consequently, the dasi was pushed to the cultural margins of Tamil society, and her art was sanitized and “revived.” Respectable upper-caste—read Brahmin—men and women took up this task of revival—but that is another story, a story that most of us know.3

It is against the backdrop of reforming and domesticating the dasi outlined above that we need to examine the modern discourses on the dasi-figure. While the denigration of the dasi as a spoiler of the conventional family goes far back into ancient times, the particular figuration we witness in early Tamil cinema is an entirely modern phenomenon. But first a quick look at the pre-modern discursive scene. Classical Tamil literature belonging to the Sangam corpus (circa 300 BCE–300 CE) abounds in references to parattais, dasis placed apart from the class of “family women.” While the epics also depict the life of dasis, it is particularly the twin epics of Cilappatikaram and Manimekalai (circa fourth century CE) that treat the subject in quite an elaborate fashion. The story of Kovalan, Kannaki, and Matavi is an archetypal myth of South India and Sri Lanka and has been told and retold in numerous versions and variants.4 The fact that Kannaki has been valorized as a goddess and a variety of cults have been associated with her explains the immense popularity of this story. It is told as folktales, sung as ballads, and performed as plays up to this day.

Cilappatikaram, the finest Tamil epic and authored by the Jaina monk Ilanko Atikal, hailing from the Cera dynasty, narrates the tragic story of Kovalan and Kannaki, both of them born into wealthy families of the mercantile class in the Cola city of Kavirippumpattinam. The epic opens with their grand marriage. Thereafter, they lead a happy married life for some years, before it is interrupted by the introduction of Matavi, a dasi, in Kovalan’s life. Matavi performs her maiden dance performance in the city and the highly amused king gifts her lots of gold. Matavi’s necklace comes for sale and whoever buys it would get the privilege of living with her. Kovalan buys the ornament. He then starts living with Matavi and slowly abandons Kannaki. Matavi dedicates her whole life to Kovalan, whom she comes to love intensely. Years pass until an incident occurs which causes a permanent separation between them. In the meantime, Kovalan has spent all his wealth on Matavi and is now penniless. Returning home, he repents on his past life with Matavi. Shortly afterwards, Kovalan and Kannaki leave for the Pantiya capital Madurai in search of a fortune. Eking out a living in Madurai, Kannaki gives her anklet (cilampu) to her husband to sell in the bazaar. The vicious designs of a goldsmith lead to Kovalan’s arrest and subsequent execution for theft of the queen’s anklet. In a state of despair and fury, Kannaki accuses the King of grave injustice. She breaks her other anklet and shows that it contains rare gems, unlike the queen’s which has pearls in it. Realizing his error and bad judgment, the king collapses and dies on the spot.

In the twelfth century hagiographical epic Periya Puranam or Tiruttontar Puranam,5 the bhakta-saint Cuntarar marries a dasi named Paravaiyar in Tiruvarur. Later, he falls in love with Cankiliyar, a Velalar girl of Tiruvorriyur, and marries her, promising never to leave her. However, driven by his desire to see Paravaiyar and her dance in Tiruvarur, he breaks the pledge and leaves, to suddenly find he has lost his vision. In extreme torment, he begs Siva to restore his sight. Siva makes him undergo a series of trials before he completely restores the bhakta’s vision. While this is a classic case of the God appropriating the devotee’s vision in order to tame it, it is also one of the early instances in which the dasi, her sexuality and her dance are linked to the motif of the loss of vision.6 I shall deal with this thematic in detail later in this article.

The dasi as a locus of all doom for the “family man” also figures in other medieval literary traditions like the viralivitu tutu,7 a genre belonging to the class of prabandha literatures and the nonti natakam,8 a dramatic genre of the late medieval times. Further, Tiruppukal, a collection of bhakti hymns by Arunagirinathar and Tanippatal Tirattu, an anthology of poems by many individual medieval poets, contain verses on dasis. Arunagirinathar particularly regrets his early years with the dasis, and vehemently abuses them in his poems for ruining his life (Alagarsamy, 2011, pp. 75–81).

Bharatnatyam:

Flying through air, carving shapes in space; a story to tell. Stand, squat, sit jump and twirl. Revel in the flurry of foot movements – Bharatanatyam is an extensive and beautiful dance form; extensive in its history, technique, interpretations and costume. It is exacting but very beautiful, very graceful.

Uncertain Histories

Bharatanatyam has not always been called Bharatanatyam. Sadir and Dasi…