DEVADASIS IN INDIA: SANCTITY, STIGMA, AND CULTURAL PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The Devadasi system occupies a significant yet deeply contested place in the social and cultural history of India. Traditionally associated with temple service, ritual performance, and sacred dedication, the institution originally carried religious prestige and artistic value. Devadasis were attached to temples as dancers, singers, and ritual specialists who participated in the community's spiritual life. Their performances sustained classical traditions of music and dance while also reinforcing the symbolic relationship between deity and devotee. Over time, however, changing political structures, colonial intervention, and social reform movements altered the institution's meaning and status. The colonial administrators and missionaries increasingly interpreted Devadasis through moral and legal categories associated with prostitution. At the same time, Indian reformers sought to abolish the system in the name of social purity and women's upliftment. The present paper examines the Devadasi system through literary, historical, and cultural perspectives. Rather than approaching the institution through fixed moral categories, the study situates it within changing historical contexts that have shaped Devadasis' identities and experiences across centuries. Drawing upon Sanskrit texts, Bhakti poetry, temple inscriptions, colonial accounts, reformist writings, and modern feminist scholarship, the study explores the transformation of the Devadasi from a sacred ritual figure into a stigmatized social identity. The study argues that the Devadasi system cannot be understood through simplistic binaries of sanctity or exploitation alone; rather, it must be approached as a historically layered institution shaped by religion, patriarchy, caste, colonialism, and artistic tradition.