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Woman carrying a jag (metal mask) in a Pardi (basket) on her head and begging is known as Devadasi, (Servant of God). This ceremonial system is called "jogava" in Marathi. She maintains herself by begging and ends up her life in brothel. We know that religion is a complex phenomenon, which pervades with a vast range of human activities in the society. It emerged with the belief in power, superior to human being and directs him to destiny and controls the nature. Its practical dimensions are expressed through a number of ways in the form of culture of the society. The religious scriptures always play a major role in the development of culture enriching language and literature. In spite of all merits of religion, one cannot overlook number of aberrations, crimes, superstitions and exploitation in the name of religion. In India Devadasi cult is such a religious practice, under which a girl is dedicated to or married not with mortal man but to idol or object of worship or to a temple. The paper attempts to find major reasons behind for persistence and continuity of this cult.

The Madras Anti-Devadasi Act was passed in 1947 with the primary objective of liberating women from the oppressive norms of the Devadasi system. Sanctioned by religion, the institutionalization of the Devadasi system within the Hindu community legitimated women from certain caste groups to become 'servants of god'. Through ritualistic norms, the Devadasis were wedded to God and the caste Hindu patriarchs were authorized to control the sexuality of the Devadasis. Given their vulnerable status in terms of caste, class, and gender, women from the castes lower in hierarchy were forced into the system. Despite the legislative intervention of the Anti-Devdasi Act seven decades ago, there are newspaper reports, which substantiate the continuation of the Devadasi systems in some villages in Tamil Nadu, reiterating the power of caste and sexist ideologies within Hindu society. In contemporary times, the Devadasis are mainly drawn from the Scheduled castes, otherwise referred to as Dalits. Literatures by historically marginalized communities play a pivotal role in their liberation. On the contrary an analysis of the literatures by (or on) the Devadasis reveal the internalization of societal ideologies which impedes their empowerment and emancipation. Drawing on Simone de Beauvoir's conceptualizations of the gendered body and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of "habitus", which underlines the embodied nature of social positions, this paper discusses the physical and psychological conditioning of the Devadasis within the caste Hindu society. Through an analysis of two Tamil novels, Moovalur Ramamirtham's Dasigalin Mosavalai allathu Mathi Petra Minor and Imayam's Sedal, this paper argues that the Devadasis depicted in the novels are embedded in caste and gender norms that denigrate and oppress them. Hence, as a paradox, their resistance to the system results in perpetuating the oppressive and discriminative social system rather than enabling liberation.

Periyar's Self-Respect Movement challenged the ideological hegemony of the Indian Independence struggle by demanding that equality between sexes and eradicating caste be put on an equal footing with national liberation. The author analyses a chapter in a novel written by Muvalur Ramamirthammal, a reformer from a devadasi community, who joined the Self-Respect Movement and became an ardent abolitionist of the devadasi system. In a dialogue between an ex-devadasi, who is represented as a Self-Respect activist, and a Brahmin man with Indian nationalist views, the former devadasi highlights the Self-Respect Movement's definition of modern citizenship based on the principles of self-respect and dignity of all beginning with women. The article concludes by discussing the novel's wider connection to the Self-Respect Movement and why further research on both respectively is crucial.

This paper uses the material from a Project of the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, which we undertook in 1991-92, related to the study, rehabilitation and organizing of Jogins in Andhra Pradesh in India. As researchers, we faced a lot of dilemma while making the research design and evolving a methodology for the study. Jogins are the modern form of the traditional Devadasi system, which existed in India from the 10th century. Dedicated to the temple to carry out various temple-related duties, these girls were married to an immortal God, and since they could never become widows, they were regarded as auspicious ones. Centuries later, by the time India was colonized, all these girls were practicing prostitution. The system was finally abolished in 1947 by law. In spite of this, a large number of women and girls, especially from the lower castes, continue to be dedicated to God in different regions of southern India, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. These girls become the keep of the village headman through whom they have a number of children. Since the whole system is institutionalized under the wraps and cover of religion, the exploitive aspect of the institution is often missed. As most of these women are from marginalized sections of society and are also employed as wage labourers and live below the poverty line, they are merely seen as labourers. Their main identity gets subsumed under this category, but here too they are invisible and are marginalized and often missed by policy makers and researchers. This paper documents the experiences of these marginalised and often forgotten women.

This article discusses different conceptions and translations of the devadasi system in transnational Dalit feminist activism. I focus specifically on activist participation at the 1994 Asia Tribunal on Women's Human Rights in Tokyo, Japan and the construction of an analogy between the experiences and struggles of devadasis and that of 'military comfort women', i.e. women from Japan's former colonies who were abducted and raped by the Japanese military during World War II. I argue that strategic claims of commonality are part of the process of making specific, local practices legible to a global audience and that these sorts of claims also enable transnational feminist activism and solidarity.

Under British colonial laws that aimed at regulating prostitution in India and imposing ideals of Victorian sexual restraint, the devadasi system came under vapid attack. Imposing Victorian ideals of sexual restraint, these laws emphasized that the prostitute was meant to be invisible and anomalous to social and political life. Given the prominence of a predominantly male dominated archive, how can scholars approximate the courtesan's marginalized subaltern voice? One way to understand the emotional and intellectual agency, and sexual autonomy of the devadasis is to examine the poetry they composed and those, written by male poets, where the courtesan is the central character. Doing so problematizes a narrow portrayal of temple women as passive, lacking agency, and as sexual victims. This article examines poetry and songs sung by courtesans in early modern India to conclude that this literature suggests that many of them signified economic and self-autonomy, assertiveness, and sexual agency.Â