Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa
Homage to The Blessed One, Accomplished and Fully Enlightened
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Devadasis
A Collection of Articles, Notes and References
References
(Revised:
References
Edited by
An
Indian Yogi
What’s in a
name? That
which we call a rose
By any
other name would smell as sweet.
- William Shakespeare
Copyright ©
2002-2010 An Indian Yogi
The
following educational writings are STRICTLY for academic research purposes
ONLY.
Should
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8 "... Freely you
received, freely give”.
- Matthew 10:8 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of
money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God—
5 having a
form of godliness but denying its
power. Have nothing to do with them.
6 They are the kind who worm their
way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all
kinds of evil desires,
7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres
opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of
depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are
rejected.
9 But they will not get very far because, as in the
case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”
- 2 Timothy 3:1-9 :: New International Version (NIV)
6 As he saith also
in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
- Hebrews 5:6 :: King James Version (KJV)
Therefore, I say:
Know your enemy and know yourself;
in a hundred
battles, you will never be defeated.
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know
yourself,
your chances of
winning or losing are equal.
If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself,
you are sure to be defeated
in every battle.
-- Sun Tzu, The
Art of War, c. 500bc
There are two ends not to be served by a wanderer. What are these two? The pursuit
of desires and of the pleasure which springs from desire, which is base,
common, leading to rebirth, ignoble, and unprofitable; and the pursuit
of pain and hardship, which is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable.
- The Blessed One, Lord
Buddha
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A Brief
Word on Copyright
References
Educational Copy of Some of the References
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A Brief Word on Copyright
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Republication or redissemination of the
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References
Some of the links may not be active (de-activated) due to
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If the link is active, do
cross-check/validate/confirm the educational copy of the article provided
along.
References
Chawla, Anil. (
http://www.samarthbharat.com/files/devadasihistory.doc
Jayasree,
A.K. (2002) Violation of Human Rights
and Torture of Sex Workers in Kerala.
http://www.thrani.com/pdf/viole.pdf
Devdasis trapped in flesh trade,
at stake is Rs 50 per man. (
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20031203151104&Page=O&Title=This+is+India&Topic=0&
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the
Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography. (
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord2000/documentation/genassembly/a-55-297.htm
http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/a55297.pdf
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Educational Copy of Some of the References
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
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Reference
Chawla, Anil. (
http://www.samarthbharat.com/files/devadasihistory.doc
She lived a normal sexual life and exercised a fair degree of choice in the matter of choosing her sexual partner who was not her husband but nevertheless often maintained a long-term relationship.
Something similar to modern society women.
the
practice, as it exists today in some parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
Another story that is heard
traces its origins to “Renuka Purana”.
Renuka the wife of the sage, Jamadagni
was cursed by her husband to be a leper when he found
out through his yogic powers that she had sinned
by admiring
another man.
Sharon
Lerner. (
Is
there a hidden link between promiscuity and leprosy carrying over the effects
to next life?
Various “Smritis” have recognized prostitution and there are instances of prostitutes being taxed. “Arthashastra” written during 300 B.C. has a chapter dealing with “Superintendent of Prostitutes”… Similarly, “Kamasutra” written in about 250 A.D. deals in detail with courtesans…
A search for the devadasi practice in books having reference of prostitution is bound to draw a blank since it would have been unimaginable at that time to link the two subjects (devadasis and prostitutes).
Also the concept of flesh, sex and taste. Something one need to be mature to
fully understand those three words. When a man or woman understands the
taste and then have a period of withholding, then the pain will be more. Something to be felt…Something to be understood properly.
Then come back to the comment, “Oh!...she spited…you
will then have to re-consider your initial opinion. A mature
understanding on normal bodily requirements of men and women living in society.
To
little children , to those who are not fully aware of
the sex side, the role of ideal romanticism is brought in for judgment.
But
on maturing and understanding with age, one have to
face the practical realities of life. Something very
different from ideal romanticism.
A scenario where you don’t consider prostitution as bad. Just a part of normal society. Legalized.
“Arthashastra”
written during 300 B.C. has a chapter dealing with “Superintendent of
Prostitutes”
The
only difference is there women have multiple partners while in married case,
there is expected to be a single partner only.
The bhavins
of
Jogins/Basavis are not allowed to dance inside the great traditional temples and their activities are confined to little traditional temples in the villages.
The very rituals which marked and confirmed her incorporation into temple service also committed her to the rigorous emotional and physical training in the classical dance, her hereditary profession. In addition, they served to advertise in a perfectly open and public manner her availability for sexual liaisons with a proper patron and protector.
It was crucially a women’s ‘dedicated’ status
which made it a symbol of social prestige and privilege to maintain her.
The devadasi’s sexual partner was always chosen by ‘arrangement’ with her
mother and grandmother acting as prime
movers in the veto system.
the devadasi was considered nitya sumangali, a woman eternally free from the adversity of widowhood
The men of the patron class were expected to accept a young devadasi as a concubine despite the enormous expense it eventually entailed.
Touching the dancing women, speaking to them or looking at them was mentioned as a ritual offence in the sectarian texts laying out the etiquette to be followed by worshippers when visiting temples. This misconduct was considered equivalent in blame to other varieties of desecration such as spitting in the temple, turning one’s back to the shrine, looking covetously at consecrated property etc.
Life honours were granted to the devadasi at the time of her death. Flowers, sandal paste and a garland from the god of the temple were sent on the occasion of her last rites. In some temples the fire of the kitchen in the temple was used to light her pyre and the deity observed ‘pollution’ for a token period of one day when no puja was performed at the shrine. Usually a funeral procession is not meant to stop anywhere but in the case of the devadasi the bier was placed for a moment on the floor near the entrance of the temple when the gifts mentioned above were made.
As a picture of good luck, beauty and fame, the devadasi was welcome in all rich man’s homes on happy occasions of celebration and honour. Her strict professionalism made her an adjunct to conservative domestic society not its ravager. It is this which lay behind the customary acceptance of married and financially secure family men as patrons.
As the wives of men who had maintained dancing women often said, they far preferred a devadasi to a second wife as a rival as the latter would make domestic life intolerable. Even amongst some non-Brahmin groups where the devadasi could assume the status of a common-law wife of her patron, she never resided with him.
Intimacy with a devadasi consequently demonstrated public success which visibly marked a man apart from his peers.
Seen in this light, the devadasi represented a badge of fortune, a form of honour managed for civil society by the temple. Land grants
were given to individuals by rulers and patrons expressly for meeting their ‘entertainment’ expenses – the upkeep of a devadasi and her musicians.
The
temple for its own part was no disinterested participant – the patronage
extended to the devadasi was by no means passive. It
recognized that her art and physical charms
attracted connoisseurs (in the garb of
devotees) to the temple eager to promote her as their protégée in the world at
large. The devadasi acted as a conduit for honour, divine
acceptance and competitive reward at the same time that she invited
‘investment’, economic, political and emotional in the deity. In this way the competitive vanities of local patrons, their weakness for one-upmanship with their equals and rivals became inextricably linked with the temple
institution. The efficacy of the devadasi as a woman
and dancer began to converge with the efficacy of the temple as a living center
of religious and social life – political, commercial and cultural.
The temple’s sanction to the system of extra-marital alliance described above was particularly evident from the fact that it was the offspring of these ‘mixed-unions’ who were given prime monopoly over temple service. The temple also ensured in this way a permanent task-force committed to temple duties over all others.
The invitation to perform at marriages and other auspicious ceremonies in elite homes flowed from the artists’ special status as god’s servants. In this respect they were clearly superior to low-caste drummers and musicians who were the hereditary clients of private households. The public entitlements of temple office – a house site, cooked food and token payments – only partly accounted for the strong monopolies that operated in the field.
By providing the cultural context for the competitive fever of art to display and prove itself, the South Indian temple institution provided itself a valuable patron. It also gave a degree of respectability to professional skills by encouraging their excellence and ceremonially sanctioning as ‘auspicious’, not impure, the unusual ways of life that went with them.
The statutory requirement to live proximate to the deity intensified local community relations which (as they saw it) had helped ‘concentrate’ and develop their skills.
Art as a corporate function and mode of livelihood ensured competence and continuity of practice.“ (Amrit Srinivasan, 1985)
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Reference
Jayasree, A.K. (2002)
Violation of Human Rights and Torture of Sex Workers in Kerala.
http://www.thrani.com/pdf/viole.pdf
Law regarding prostitution in
(Reference: Jayasree, A.K. (2002) Violation of Human Rights and Torture of Sex Workers in Kerala. THRANI Center for Crisis Control.)
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Reference
Devdasis trapped in flesh trade,
at stake is Rs 50 per man. (
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20031203151104&Page=O&Title=This+is+India&Topic=0&
Devdasis trapped in flesh trade,
at stake is Rs 50 per man
SANGLI: We were
allowed to enter their homes on one condition. "You must promise you will
not ask a Devadasi to reveal whether she has
AIDS," a gharwali or brothel owner at Gokulnagar told us.
"You
may look at a patient from afar, but when a Devadasi
gets AIDS only she knows and I know."
The Devadasi system, intended as a ritualistic act of
appeasement, forbids the girls from marrying anyone else. The 500-odd Devdasis trapped in the flesh
trade in Sangli now squabble over clients. At stake
is Rs 50 per man.
They cannot afford
to lose customers _ truck driver, college student or wealthy grape-growers.
They work the nights with make-up, leaving hospital visits for the worst days.
But it's difficult
for them to meet the cost of anti-retroviral
drugs. There's little left after sending money orders to
villages in Karnataka to marry off brothers and educate nephews. Their
daughters, however, are pulled out of school when money runs out.
"We cannot
read or write but we know what is ARV,"
says Kamalabai, initiated as a Devadasi,
along with three of her seven sisters. They
wear red and white pearls to indicate they will not marry. "Most girls have no money so they are admitted to civil hospital only when
there's no hope," she adds.
Gokulnagar is a settlement of 260
rooms, each home to three or four Devadasis. The
afternoons are no longer for lazy gossip. They chat, instead, about hospitals
and confusing medical forms. If an inmate succumbs to AIDS, they pitch in to pay for the funeral.
"When
funerals become a frequent occurrence, the fearful question uppermost is who's
next?" says a booklet of the Veshya
AIDS Muqabla Parishad.
Men are rejected if
they refuse to use condoms, though some women give in when it's their maalak (owner) sulking.
"Even if a man shows me Rs 500 I'll ask him to
wear a condom," says Kavitha, a young Devadasi, as she bathes her newborn.
We entered a room
where a Devadasi lay pale, in bed. The lure of Sangli's highways had brought the woman's mother to Gokulnagar. "After paying for my brother's wedding and
nephew's engineering education, how can I pay for my daughter's ARV?" she
asks.
The
rules of the Devadasi system compel families to
accept them when brothel owners send them home, HIV+. "But families may not always continue support when their symptoms
become ugly and obvious," says a social worker.
Remka spent Rs 30,000 on
the wedding of three brothers. "Now, I can't send my daughter to
school," she mumbles. Her daughter, Rekha, is
also a Devadasi. Her favourite
movie (she watched it twice) is Devdas. She and her friends splurge Rs 5 per poster
on the pin-up girls Devadasis cannot be. Their favourites: Aishwarya, Amisha and Kajol.
(Reference: Devdasis trapped in flesh trade, at stake is Rs 50 per man. (
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Reference
Report of the
Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights
on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. (
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord2000/documentation/genassembly/a-55-297.htm
http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/a55297.pdf
47. In
India, a recent study carried out by the State Management Agency examined the
situation of children in prostitution in three cities in Kerala,
Ernakulam, Thiruventhupuram,
and
48. The findings challenged the presumption of the traditional "causes" for entry into prostitution — namely, poverty, illiteracy, and lack of education, since a sizeable number of the children interviewed had finished school, came from comparatively wealthy families, and spent the money which they earned on cosmetics and clothes. Other children, it was suggested, "do it just to get even with over-strict parents".
49. For the larger percentage of the children interviewed, poverty, broken families, sexually abusive relatives, co-workers or bosses, and the resultant emotional trauma were found to be the chief factors driving them into the sex trade.
50. A small number of the
children reported that they looked for clients quite openly, on streets or
beaches, but others were more clandestine, such as
the girls who met clients in their homes or in pre-arranged safe houses, away
from the sight of the authorities. Some children reported that they had
accompanied clients on extended journeys, and their experiences of these trips
varied from being given gifts and money to being gang-raped and short-changed.
In
51. Many of the children did not believe that their behaviour put them at any risk. Most of the boys believed that homosexual sex did not lead to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and that condoms were only used to prevent pregnancy. The children had other misconceptions, such as that sex with the rich was safe; and 98 per cent of those interviewed said that they did not practice safe sex. The survey revealed that 52 per cent of the children had STDs.
52. The survey recommended an action plan to rescue children in prostitution, including protection and prevention, and strengthening family relationships and economic conditions, both within the family and throughout society.
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“Thou belongest
to That Which Is
Undying, and not merely to time alone,” murmured the Sphinx, breaking its muteness at last. “Thou art
eternal, and not merely
of the vanishing flesh. The soul in man cannot be killed, cannot die. It waits, shroud-wrapped,
in thy heart, as I waited,
sand-wrapped, in thy world. Know thyself, O mortal! For there is One within thee, as in all men, that comes and stands at the bar and bears witness that there IS a God!”
(Reference: Brunton, Paul. (1962) A Search in Secret
Amen