Gone are the days when History was written by the victors and elitists. During the post-colonial period, many leftist schools of humanities. Subaltern studies are one version of post-colonial studies that focused on representing the voices of the “lower social classes”. These academic narratives gained momentum in the 1980s, thanks to the Subaltern Studies Group (SSG), a group of South Asian scholars pursuing a new approach to (re) writing History, and building postcolonial narratives.

The Devadasi community qualifies as a subaltern study as it had all the elements of “drama” needed to paint a colourful social history of the oppressed and the oppressors. The top most selling point for this narrative is the Devadasi Abolishment Act with a socio-religious angle especially since the Devadasi tradition has a ritualistic angle that traces back to the Hindu Temple Institution. What keeps this narrative going in South India is the fact that the profession of the Devadasi community, in contemporary times, is taken up by the upper-class Brahmins, who are thriving in the art forms.

Who were Devadasi-s? What was their role in the social hierarchy? What happened to them after the Abolishment Act? How does it relate to the recent tensions and divisions as a result of the announcement of 2024 Sangitha Kalanidhi? Is there a similar interplay of power dynamics especially since both involve artistic communities, its institutions, and patrons? 

Origin And Privilege Of The Devadasi Community

Today as academics repeatedly churn out the narratives of the Devadasi system and the Abolishment Act or the disenfranchisement, we have to read it in the context of what was happening elsewhere too. When a certain religion perceived threats from matriarchy it engaged in burning women in the name of witch-hunt. In India, at the same time, the dharmic society was celebrating matriarchy, giving them special status in the society.

In the book Nityasumangali: Devadasi Tradition in South India, Saskia C Keserboom traces the community’s origin to bardic traditions that consisted of male and female communities, both gaining a very prominent social status. In the later medieval times, the communities organised themselves into two orchestras: the periamelam (male nagaswaram virtuoso) who were patriarchal, and the chinnamelam (devadasi-s, consisting of the female dancers and their male guru-s: the nattuvanar-s) who were matriarchal. 

She explains the social and religious aspects of Sangam that suggest that the divine manifested in various intensities that needed mediation; in this space, the form and function of Devadasis were constructed to remove the evil influences of the temple deity. This earned them the special social status as (nityasumangali) the ever-auspicious also.

Amrit Srinivasan, a social anthropologist details that this shared community who lived, married, and worked together, exhibited a competitiveness amongst them. He writes, ‘Most of the nagaswaram players remarked on the greater wealth, fame, and glamour that had been possible for the dancing girls as compared to themselves. Significantly, they claimed this to be the effect of an unfair advantage arising out of the natural attraction for women. According to them, the temple authorities gave the dance pre-eminence at festivals knowing that the people would flock to see the devadasis.’ He is certain that ‘the leading role played by the men of the community in the subsequent reform campaign to abolish the female profession of temple-dancing cannot be understood without reference to this potent fact.’

Devadasi Abolishment And Disenfranchisement

When the native kings and their patronage of the temples weaned, among the many Hindu institutions that crumbled, the devadasi matriarchy suffered the most.

Earlier, the Devadasi women, who enjoyed higher professional status than men with special temple privileges were stripped of their rights as a result of “reform” that was largely politically pushed by some minorities of the community. As a result, the matrifocal household of the community during its prosperity included excessive female residents, a dichotomous power structure where the female members exercised household control, with customary Hindu law supporting their inheritance; from the 1920s began to shift, favouring the males of the community over the females. Although the Madras Act of 1929 enfranchising inams (gifts) and maniams (grants) became tax-free privileges that compensated the communities on the grounds of social justice; the conversion of public land into private taxable “property” also favoured the men over the women of the community. What was once the exclusive right of the professional working class of the community, became available for men of the community to inherit as well.

Yamini Krishnamurthy recounts in her autobiography that Mylapore Gowri Amma, who was once the Queen of Mylapore, lived in penury in her later period of life, bargaining with a street vendor for 2 anna-s, even though she possessed in her palms an unparalleled knowledge that was complemented with mastery in craft. 

 Did the Devadasi Abolishment progress or regress the matriarchy?

Art, society, And Politics

When the institution began to crumble, few male members of the community decided to support their female practitioners. The nattuvanar community spread the art to other communities outside of the guild but were not practitioners of dance, keeping to the norms of the guild. The old families coming out now to perform today shows that time heals. The young girls are encouraged and welcomed by the rasika-s and dance community.

Looking through the lens of socio-political, at that time the scenario prevalent in TN was pushing for anti-Brahminism aggressively between 1920 and 1947 by the Justice Party (now DK/DMK). This was done under the pretext of reinstating “rationalism”, and propagating atheistic programmes, wherein the Backward Classes Movement joined hands with the Christian missionaries with the sole agenda of discrediting Hindu practices and customs on the basis of reforming society. The Backward Classes Movement particularly included the men of the devadasi groups whose focussed agenda was anti-ritualism for both dominance within the household and to reclaim their socio-political status. 

When the Abolishment Bill was passed, the Justice Party, with the official backing of the British through Christian missionaries, had taken great care to protect service benefits in terms of grants and gifts attached to the Devadasi establishment. But another parallel movement existed who were interested in the Devadasi system was the Theosophical movement. The Theosophical Society, which was non-political, became the “unofficial” British wing as its interest was in the nationalisation of Indian art, life, and religious ideals. Into this wing, came contemporary educationalists of post-independent India Rabindranath Tagore, J. Krishnamurthi, and Rukmini Devi.

Given that the Carnatic traditions also had devadasi-s, the seat of Carnatic tradition being Thiruvaiyaru, it produced many vaggyakara-s. Thus, male members of the upper class were already learning and performing the Carnatic tradition from the middle and late 18th Century CE. The stigma of the Devadasi was attached only to Sadir, the traditional dance form of TN, as the vaggyakara-s of sadir belonged to the Devadasi community. This demarcation is important for present and future generations of rasika-s and practitioners to know. 

To remove the stigma attached to the practice of devadasi dance, the form and function needed sanitisation which was done by Rukmini Devi Arundale. In establishing Kalakshetra, Rukmini Devi democratised the dance form. She also broke the gender divide that existed in dance traditions. Her determination and endurance sowed the seed not only for next-generation Bharatanatyam practitioners but also largely helped other regional devadasi dance forms.

In The Present: Have The Wounds Of The Past Healed?

Academics belonging to the History and Anthropology disciplines can write papers on temple institutions and devadasi-s, but none of their studies and collaboration promote the spirit of the devadasi system and are relevant to India’s cultural continuity. Their narratives while staging the Devadasi dance have always only poked into the wounds of the surviving members of the community from time to time, not letting them heal.

In light of the recent announcement of the 2024 awards by the Madras Music Academy, it is clear that the premier institution is sending a political message that does not align with the values and history of what the institution has so long stood for. The Academy has undoubtedly groomed and promoted talent while also maintaining a high level of artistic excellence. However, when T. M. Krishna snubbed The Music Academy on several occasions in the past, the decision of the Academy had startling reactions, raising the eyebrows of not just the artists. The Academy’s choice to place a political ideology over its own institutional values has also definitely let down the larger performing arts community.

The Carnatic community is conflicted as they consider the performing space sacred, but are wary that the next generation of young talent and their intellectual skills will be used to push false narratives that may only lead to polarisation within the Tam-Brahm communities. The Music Academy being at the forefront of the artistic milieu paving the way for such polarisation is tragic. The millennial generation that is witnessing this churning in society needs to ask only one question – should caste and politics creep into the institutions of traditional arts, when the role of arts in society is to explore the ‘form’ that is meant to heal?

At this juncture, it is also extremely important to be sensitive to the art and the artists as both are inseparable and dependent on patronage. The role of patrons and rasika-s will thus play an important role in Margazhi Music and Dance Season here on especially since political agendas are intruding into the art and culture space.

The curtain is still drawn… the drama is yet to unfold!

Suggestions for further reading

• Bharatanatyam, A Reader – Oxford University Press 2010
• Saskia C Kersenboom, Nityasumangali, Motilal Banarsidass (1987) 2011, New Delhi
• Knowledge Tradition Text, Approaches to Bharata’s Natyashastra, Sangeet Natak Akademi 2007
• Douglas Knight Jr., Balasaraswathi, Her Art & Life, Wesleyan University Press 2010, in India Tranquebar (2011)

Deepa Chakravarthy is a performing artist and a practising academic. She is an Indic cultural expert whose expertise extends Indian cultural history to other practice traditions like Yoga and Vedic chanting.

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