Devadāsis and gift giving in medieval south India Jeevanandam S.*, Pande Rekha** *Research Scholar, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India **Professor, Department of History and Head, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India Abstract The male centric view of history writing in India is very biased. Women’s voices are not heard in such reconstruction of the past. Generally, women in Indian history are constrained to the “private” domain; on the other hand, recorded history focuses on their participation in the “public” domain. Devadāsis played a prominent role in the ‘public domain’: political and social events. The expansion of the temple system and the growth of bhakti movement created the class of temple dancing girls. They were a very expressive semiotic unit who signified the mythical- ascetic- cum- ritual object residing in the collective consciousness of Hindu tradition. This particular research focuses on the medieval south India since it is considered as a significant era in shaping the cultural history of south India. Sanskrtic religion took over Sramanic in this time period. In this context, this paper discusses the charities, honors and functions of the temple girls in medieval south Indian society. This paper classifies Devadāsis into three groups based on the content of the inscriptions procured. The first group “Gift of a devadāsi to temple” deals with the dedication of the girls to the medieval south Indian temples. The second category “Gifts made by devadāsis to temples” explains the wealth and property owned by devadāsis in medieval period. The final classification “Gifts made to devadāsis” provides information on the three genres. One kind of gifts and orders were made to protect the devadāsis, the second was for the sake of good will of devadāsis and the third was donated to feed the devadāsis. As they were very influential on account of their wealth and social status; studying their contribution to the society in the medieval period would help in a holistic reconstruction of history which is multi-voiced. Top Keywords Devadasi, Temple, Bhakti. Top |