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Devadasis have graced the halls of Indian temples for over a thousand years. Although commonly called temple prostitutes, they played a far more important role in society than this label admits. Dedicated to the service of a deity before the age of 9, girls received rigorous training in a wide variety of arts. Devadasis were, in a sense, India’s professional dancers and singers. Their devotional dances performed before the inner sanctum of the temple,serve to keep the gods happy; their dance drama, performed at celebrations and festivals, enacted the god’s legendary exploits. Devadasis were also noted for their satirical and erotic or lascivious dance rituals. Devotional dance worship, like the sacrifices of Brahmin priests, helped the community remain in the deity’s favour. While devadasis enjoyed a sacred status, marriage was forbidden. Their duties include providing sexual services to male visitors of the temple.

A young devadasi’s arangetram, debut dance performance, before the deity, took place after the first menses and signalled availability for a sexual liaison. Deflowering a devadasi was a matter of great prestige. Sexual desire was seen as a manifestation of divine presence; devadasi dance was believed to stimulate the cosmic energy within man. As the erotic sculpture relief on temples around India show, the joy of sexual union was seen as a paradigm for religious ecstasy. Men believed that having intercourse with devadasis, an act of purification, would lead to celestial bliss; devadasis were taught that it was their dharma, their duty, to provide sexual services to male devotees, and that by doing so they would improve their lot in the next life, or even better, be liberated from the cycle of eternal returns. But these religious and philosophical concerns veiled more material interests: fees from devadasi services provided an income to temples and to the king’s treasury.

While the system, an outgrowth of the bhakti movement, dates to the 6th century, it’s ideological roots stretch back, not only to the Sangam poetry of the Tamil bardic tradition, but to the three thousand year old Vedas, ancient and sacred texts, hymns used in conjunction with rites to invoke the gods. In the Vedas, fertility, dance and prostitution are closely intertwined – conversation hymns, designed to bring the rains, entailed special ritual performances by dancers and prostitutes. The ‘Mahavrata’ fertility rite calls for ritual intercourse with a prostitute, the more unrestrained the sex, the greater the influence in the realm of nature. Prostitutes, like the devadasis today, are considered auspicious and associated with the fertility of the land.

Excerpted from page 6-7 of ‘Servants of the Goddess: the modern day Devadasi’ by Catherine Rubin Kermorgant.