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According to Abbé Dubois, who traveled widely in south India in the late Eighteeth Century, every temple of note had a band of eight or twelve devadasis in service. Royal or urban temples frequently had as many as four hundred. Beautiful and talented girls were transferred from small rural temples to royal temples along with elephants and horses.
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Over the past hundred and fifty years, devadasis have gradually been pushed out of temples across south India; however, economic pressures and ancient traditions conspire to perpetuate the system. Thousands of girls are dedicated to the goddess every year and end up leading a life of sexual slavery.
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An estimated quarter million devadasis are currently living in south India’s poverty belt.
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Devadasis are imbued with “Shakti,” divine feminine energy, power and strength. They have the power to appease the gods and call forth the rains. They are responsible for the wellbeing of the community, and the maintenance of the cosmic order.
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While devadasis are despised as impure because of their low birth and sexual activity, they are also considered highly auspicious. During rituals, in a remarkable reversal of caste hierarchy, high-caste women bend down to touch their feet.
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Sumithra, right, is the head devadasis of Kalyana village. She is in charge of the jagha, a moveable shrine to the goddess Yellamma. Sumithra carries the jagha to the homes and farms of upper-caste landlords to perform rituals at weddings, name-giving ceremonies, when a buffalo calf is born, etc. Crops cannot be harvested until she has blessed the fields.
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Sumithra earns enough performing her ritual duties so that she does not have to resort to sex work to support her family. The father of her children works as a bonded laborer for a local landlord. Sumithra’s daughter, Renuka, is eleven in this photograph.
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Sumithra, Renuka (here aged sixteen) and Lakshmni, Renuka’s daughter. The tradition of carrying the jagha, a moveable shrine to Yellamma, is passed from mother to daughter. Sumithra keeps the jagha in a spare room of her house. When villagers need to consult the goddess, they stop by. Sumithra acts as a medium. She is known for the accuracy of her predictions.
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In the intimacy of the jagha room at Sumithra’s house, devadasi women shared their stories with us.
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Shanti was sent to work in a brothel in Bombay at the age of thirteen so that her brothers could attend school. After a few years she returned to the village where she fell in love with the son of an upper-caste landlord.
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“Some people look down on me because I don’t know whom the fathers of my children are. They think they are better than me, but they’re not. We too are human beings.” — Durga, sixteen year-old mother of two.
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“If my child had been a girl, I would have killed her. Really, I would have strangled her at birth. She would have become a devadasi, like me. Her life would have been full of pain and sorrow, like mine; I wouldn’t have been able to see that happen.” — Rukmini, a devadasi and mother, aged fifteen.
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“Now that the beads are tied, there’s nothing I can do. If I had known, I wouldn’t have let them do it. I would have met a nice boy and married him.” — Rukmini, devadasi, aged fifteen
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In south India’s poverty belt, where drought and crop failure are common, adults go to bed hungry on a regular basis so that their children will have enough to eat. As soon as they are old enough to earn in the fields, children are pulled from school.
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“Landlords give jobs in the fields and loans in times of drought to the families of the devadasis they are involved with. In hard times, having a devadasi in the family is essential. We depend on the upper castes for our survival.” — Chandra, devadasi and mother of five.
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“I’ve had many men, but until Tamana came along, I trusted no one. He may not be handsome, but he is reliable. He has a good heart and good values.” — Ganga, devadasi and mistress of an upper-caste landlord.
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Tamana praying. “Every night, we do the Om Namah Shiva,” says Ganga.
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Thimma, head devadasis of Lagoli village, leads a traditional musical troupe of five devotees, including one jogappa. Her troupe is known in the region for its traditional repertoire of songs and dances.
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Members of Thimma’s troupe are called far and wide to perform rituals, and their songs have been recorded by a musicologist from Dharwad.
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The mandapa, or hall of worship, of a medieval Shiva temple in Lagoli village. On the round slab before the inner sanctum of the god, devadasis once performed dance-worship twice a day. In medieval times, devadasis were allocated houses in streets near the temple. Today’s devadasis live in houses surrounding the temple and are probably the descendants of those who served in the temple centuries ago.
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Ranavva was always the first to grasp my more complicated questions. Her irreverent, witty banter kept the conversation interesting.
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A young girl slated for dedication. She already wears the red and white bead necklace that signifies her service to the goddess.
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Lakshmi, 14, was dedicated by her aunt, against the will of her mother. “My sister hit me so hard she tore out my nose ring, but I had no choice. Who would have taken care of us in our old age.” said her aunt.
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South gate of Yellamma’s main temple in Saundatti. Devotees must visit the temple at least once a year. Villagers travel to festivals by bullock cart or on foot in processions, forming one long glowing snake, undulating through the landscape. Devadasis and girls slated for dedication lead the processions, carrying pots of water from the village well on their head. Sumithra takes her moveable shrine to Saundatti once a year to “renew its power.”
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Villagers start preparing for the pilgrimage and cooking special dishes weeks ahead of time. Only men can prepare certain ritual foods.
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Members of all castes bathe together in the jogula bhavi, a step well, to purify themselves before climbing the mountain to the Saundatti Temple.
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For some rapacious temple Brahmans, when it comes to finagling a few coins from the poorest of the poor, no trick is too low.
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Even before the advent of AIDS, not many devadasis reached old age. They succumbed to suicide, alcoholism, hepatitis B and untreated venereal diseases.
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Girl preparing tufts of neem leaves for the festival. Devadasis prove their devotion to the goddess by walking up the steep mountain flank to the temple wearing only a robe of neem leaves. Before their dedication ceremonies, girls used to be required to run up the hill naked, but the custom has been outlawed. Police keep careful watch, but nude worshipers occasionally slip through the cracks.
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At the Chitragudi Temple, devotees purify themselves in the river before worship. The aerial roots of the Banyan tree, sacred tree of wisdom, plunge from lofty branches back into the earth and the “netherworld.” The Banyan tree transforms the primordial chaos at the earth’s center into a life-giving force.
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Head priest at the Chitragudi Temple. During the New Moon Festival, several young girls wearing only skirts of neem leaves were dedicated in plain view before the goddess.
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One of the head priest’s three sons. At the festival, father and sons walk across a fifteen-foot bed of hot coals to prove their devotion to the goddess.
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An upper-caste villager at the Shiva temple in Kalyana.
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South India’s poverty belt is peppered with ruins of medieval temples attesting to a time when powerful kingdoms vied for power. Kings taxed temple revenues, and having devadasis helped him fill coffers. Alberuni, an 11th century traveler writes, “Hindus are not very severe in punishing whoredom. The fault, however, lies with the kings and not with the nation. But for the kings, no Brahman or priest would suffer in their idol-temples the women who sing, dance and play. The kings make them an attraction for their cities, a bait of pleasure for their subjects, for no other but financial reasons.”
