{"id":1771,"date":"2017-06-26T12:28:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T09:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/?p=1771"},"modified":"2025-11-05T14:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:24:16","slug":"the-devadasi-institution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/the-devadasi-institution\/","title":{"rendered":"The <em>Devadasi<\/em> Institution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was already mention of <em>lasya<\/em>-style dances in the <em>Natyashastra<\/em>, or the Drama Manual, compiled in the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> century AD. These dances are soft or \u201cfeminine\u201d in style and combine <em>abhinaya<\/em> (mimetic storytelling) sequences with <em>nrtta<\/em> (pure dance) sequences. In Indian literature these dances are often related to mythical <em>apsara<\/em> nymphs, famous courtesans etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The votive dances, particularly in the southern parts of India, represent the <em>lasya<\/em> style and are therefore often called \u201ctemple dances\u201d in the West. The performers in these votive dances, dedicated to the chief deity of the temple, were a special group of temple servants called <em>devadasis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Devadasis<\/em> were female temple servants, who were given to the temple to be \u201cmarried\u201d to the deity of the temple. Thus <em>devadasis<\/em> became the god\u2019s brides. They took care of several ritual duties, the most important duty being the votive dances. In return, the temples provided them with a house to live in and their daily livelihood. Some of the large South Indian temple complexes had hundreds of <em>devadasis<\/em> in their service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>devadasi<\/em> institution declined during the later part of the Middle Ages. The <em>devadasis<\/em> first provided the clergy with sexual services, and later many of them became public prostitutes. This led to the decline of their art as well as general contempt toward the <em>devadasis<\/em>, particularly by the British colonial authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The revival of these \u201ctemple dances\u201d started in the early 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, when some upper caste artists started to perform the repertoire of the <em>devadasis<\/em> while the tradition was removed from their original temple context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was already mention of lasya-style dances in the Natyashastra, or the Drama Manual, compiled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-further-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4692,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions\/4692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}