INCREDIBLE INDIA AND OTHER INCREDiBiLiTiES: 30 March 2008

At last one of my readers finally asked what are DEVADASI. In the following a quite long explanation. To avoid misunderstandings all the information below did not come from my pen, I just sorted and put information together available on the internet.

Devadasi is a religious practice in southern India, including Andhra Pradesh but not restricted to these regions, whereby parents marry a daughter to a deity or a temple. The marriage usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty and requires the girl to become a prostitute for upper-caste community members. Such girls are known as jogini. They are forbidden to enter into a real marriage.

Mythically, the devadasis are the incarnation of Urvashi, the celestial nymph. Legend has it that Urvashi was dancing at Indra’s court and saw Jayanta, Indra’s son. For a brief moment, her eyes lingered on Jayanta, and momentarily distracted, she missed a step. This enraged Agastya, the sage, who had observed their infatuated exchange of glances. Agastya cursed the pair and Indra and Jayanta had to atone, banished to Earth to perform their art there. From an Urvashi in love, a thousand devadasi-s were born.

Dedicating dancing girls to temples in the service of God was not peculiar to India. Many ancient civilizations, like those of Babylonia, Cyprus, Phoenicia, Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria employed young girls to propitiate their deities in their respective temples. In the temple of Corinth, we are told, hundreds of prostitutes lived in the precincts of the temple and the main income of the shrine was from the income of these courtesans. Contemporary norms found no stigma if rich clientele associated themselves with such women, who in their spare time entertained the rich and wealthy.
India was no exception. Although ancient texts like Vedas, Upanishads do not mention Devadasis (servants of God), institutionalized worship of idols in temples during early centuries of Christian era led to the practice of dedicating women to temples as laid down in the puranas. Thus some puranas (Agni Purana and Bhavishya Purana) specifically state that the best way for a man to obtain Suryaloka (heaven of sun god) was to dedicate a group of dancing girls to the temple of sun. For many kings and rich merchants it was the most affordable way to earn merit! (Punya)
Just like the kings employing women for various chores in the palace, women were employed in temples for different seva or services like fanning, holding chamar during procession, preparing ointments for the idol. They also participated in state-plays enacted before the deity during festivals. Some of the Devadasis were highly accomplished and earned lot of wealth
There were seven types of Devadasis as per Hindu tradition.
Datta -- self-dedicated, or given to deity
Vikrita -- Purchased or self-sold to God,
Bhritya -- servant for supporting family
Bhakta devotee -- Devadasi
Abducted and deserted at the temple
Alankara--donated by kings or nobles to their family deity
Rudra Ganika or Gopika--appointed by the temple for specific services
The last two find mention in inscriptions as well and hence it is seen that their job was primarily service of the deity. Since they were wedded to the deity, they could not marry a mortal. However they had to cater to demands of the employer or the priest and as is a common curse of India, a separate caste came into existence. The sons of temple women continued as temple staff or musicians and daughters became dancers and musicians. For centuries Devadasis continued to be custodians of fine arts. They studied classics (Sanskrit and regional languages.) Set to music lyrics and played and taught various musical instruments and kept the tradition of Bharatanatya or Indian classical dance alive. No stigma was attached for their profession. Their presence at marriage and other festive occasion was required. some got the tali (auspicious thread of a bride) tied by a Devadasi during wedding
But the arrival of British followed by missionaries dealt a cultural death blow to the institution of Devadasis. The Europeans could not distinguish between Devadasis, prostitutes, and street nauch girls. It was considered vulgar and lowly to attend concerts of Devadasis or attend dance performances. English educated Indians were suddenly aware of their status and the laws were passed to ban the practice. By then the impoverished dancing women had to take recourse to prostitution for mere survival. The abolition of Devadasi system in 1920s did help to stop exploitation of poorer women in the name of religion. But superstitions regarding dedicating female child still continue in parts of India, such as the devotion to Yellamma..
Joginis are recognised by their copper bangles, the band they wear round their necks with a leather pendant and a long necklace with several pendants which have the image of Goddess Yellamma.. The practice was legal in India until1988, yet it still continues as is evidenced by the testimony of a 35-year-old former jogini named Ashama. She ran away from her village and returned to lead the fight to abolish the illegal practice. The local police do not enforce the law and the villagers themselves make no effort to abolish the heinous practice.
“Since the day of the initiation, I have not lived with dignity. I became available for all the men who inhabited Karni. They would ask me for sexual favours and I, as a jogini, was expected to please them. My trauma began even when I had not attained puberty”
Ashama was seven when her parents married her to the local god. She was recently awarded the Neerja Bhanot award for courage.
The practice of religious prostitution is known as basivi in Karnataka and matangi in Maharastra. It is also known as venkatasani, nailis, muralis and theradiyan
The gruesome story of the Devadasi system is nothing but a blatant
violation of the human rights of the girl child to survive and have a
normal, healthy childhood. Despite its visible presence as a system in
violating every possible convention and code of the most basic rights of
women and girl children, the state and central legal provisions do very
little to address this grave issue. As early as 1936, in the then
undivided Madras presidency, it is the persistence of a dynamic social
worker that had brought in a Devadasi Abolition Act in the upper house of
the then Madras legislature. But contrarily in the other states, it is
widely prevalent even today as a profession which has the sanction of
religion and culture, seldom considering it as a violation of human
rights.
The Kudithini village of Bellary district is a glaring example of how the
girl children are being initiated into the process of becoming Devadasis
(sex workers) even before they attain puberty. Economic compulsions and
traditional beliefs are the two main reasons for such a practice
especially when the area suffers in famine, drought and epidemics, to
appease gods and goddesses. In a brief ceremony conducted at the temple of
the local goddess 'Huligamma' near Bellary town, the girl goes through the
process of getting married to the deity. After that it is an abusive cycle
that continues for the rest of her life and a bond that forbids her to
marry anyone else.

After 3 weeks of the dedication ceremony, the girl is entrusted to the
care of her maternal uncle who would be the first among the series of
abusers who would exploit, oppress and leave her with no option to lead a
life of dignity and more importantly one of her choice. The victimization
and exploitation continue through several clients who would be local
landlords, men from the same and neighbouring villages, truck drivers and
so on. Thus, in this community, the girl children are assets, as the
responsibility of providing for the family rests on the eldest daughter
who is dedicated to the goddess "Huligamma". Besides obliging her
clientele, she is often entrusted with the responsibility of taking care
of handicapped/disabled or elders at home. For instance, Lakshmi, a 10
year old girl , being totally blind, was dedicated to become a Devadasi
last year and now she has to take care of her entire family of seven
members.

Now, that the system has been accepted by the women almost as a way of
life, neither do they feel hesitant to talk about it nor do they feel
outraged. However, those who have challenged it have also only ended up
being condemned by the community. In the case of Chatramma, whose daughter
has married a man from the neighbouring village, the mother feels her
daughter has betrayed her by not carrying on the Devadasi tradition and
has hence disowned her.
It is a distressing reality that families of Devadasis lead a hand to
mouth existence and live under conditions of extreme poverty and squalor.
Most children look underfed and malnourished. They live in thatched houses
that are leaky and in bad shape, requiring immediate repairs. Being women
who have multiple sexual partners consciousness/awareness on issues of
personal/menstrual hygiene is very low. Consequently, most of the women
(almost 75%) suffer from problems of reproductive tract infections and
sexually transmitted diseases. The women perceive any such problem as a
normal feature of their life cycle and never take their health concerns
seriously.

As 100% of the deliveries are domiciliary sometimes attended to by
trained/ untrained midwives or taken care of by the older women in the
community, abortions and still births are alarmingly frequent. It is even
reported that 78% of women go through frequent abortions or give birth to
physically/ mentally handicapped children. Further, when such handicapped
children are born they go through the same vicious cycle as they too are
dedicated to the goddess.

Frequent pregnancies, abortions and deliveries render majority of the
Devadasi women physically weak and anaemic. Contraceptive measures are
strictly a taboo and even a mere mention evokes a strong negative response
from all the women. Unwanted pregnancies are subjected to crude methods of
induced abortions. The most common practice is to insert a stick coated
with oleander milk into the uterus of the pregnant woman. The effect that
it could have on her reproductive health is not given any consideration.
It is heard that the government is also rehabilitating the Devadasis and
their children in special schools. It is perceived among their own
children that this practice is only further isolating and segregating them
from other children. Similarly the mass weddings that have been promoted
in an ad hoc fashion instead of providing the victimized women security
and dignity, encourages unscrupulous elements to marry these women and
trade them off to the brothels in Bombay.

As far as the other villages like Kudithini are concerned the task of
WWF has been far more difficult as the entire village comprises of
Devadasi community and the practice has become a convention and a way of
life, with the women merely conforming to it. The realization that it
would require something far more than mere credit delivery to make a dent
in to the situation has motivated WWF to initiate its Reproductive and
Child Health program in these parts for addressing the health concerns of
the Devadasis. This strategy of a comprehensive approach of addressing the
multifarious needs of the community by delivering credit & health services
as a combination is expected to create better awareness and attitudinal
change among the women.

Simultaneously, the counselling and advocacy program of WWF will work
towards changing existent attitudes and mindsets of the community. While
the struggle ahead is no doubt a challenging one, some dent has already
been made by WWF in the areas where rehabilitated Devadasi women are
educating their daughters today. This is a very positive trend for the
future as the second generation is being saved of the misery and indignity
of sexual abuse. It is for the government and for the communities to come
together and realize that this is a grave human rights violation to deny
and deprive women even their most basic right to control their own minds
and bodies.

45 Year Old Uligammal said:
"Being the first born among twelve children in my family, I was dedicated
to Huligamma (local goddess). I was ten years old and was forced to have
sex with my uncle after which other men started frequenting. My earnings
were crucial for my 14 member family.... although I have four children, I
know that my two sons will be of no use to me in old age, that is why I
have dedicated my eldest daughter to Huligamma. She and her children live
with me. We cannot give up this work even if we want to, as the survival
of our children and families depends on it. Some of the men who visit us,
have severe venereal diseases but they do not tell us. We suffer from
several reproductive health problems".
The text comes mainly from 2 sources
http://www.princesskama.com/home.html
http://www.ashanet.org/library/articles/devadasis.199812.html
Who is interested in the topic and treatment of lower class see also
“A word about Untouchables or Dalits”
Devadasi System in Indian Temples of Zoya Zaida, www.sikhspectrum.co , a very detailed and expierenced essay about the item.

I apologize to the authors for using their text and hope they will forgive me knowing my simple goal is to show the WEST that India is not only Goa , Nano, Sensex, Taj Mahal and Delhi.