The Tamil origin of Devadasi system and its evolution throughout Indian history
Later Medieval Period
The term “Devadasi” commonly referred to unmarried temple servants who had been dedicated to temple deities as young girls. The original rendering of the word was the Tamil term “tevatasi” , i.e. ‘slave of god, which is said to be a sanskritized form of the Tamil term tevaratiyal which means a woman who enslaved for the service of some specific deity or sacred object. The Devadasi system had existed from Sangam Age onwards in Tamilakam and initially the prevailing custom and practices of Devadasi system was in no way related to the gods or deities mentioned in Sanskrit literature, especially the Trinity. However, however time with assimilation of Tamils into mainstream Hinduism, the Devadasis become a common feature in almost all the major Tamil temples, spreading to other parts of South India like Karnataka and Andhra.
The devadasi was one, who was a dancer and one who is associated with temple, either by having some kind of regular service function in a temple or because her primary social identity is defined with reference to a temple. Many a times these girls also provided sexual services to their clients. Edgar Thurston described devadasis as dancing– girls attached to the Tamil temples. Historians like Monier Williams, had also observed this and he also added since these native Tamil girls were seen as property of the temple, most of them were rather slaves to the licentious passions of the profligate Brahmin priests of the temples to which they belong.
Lower caste women i.e all Tamil Non-Brahmin women were victims of this Devadasi system. Genetic studies on residents of Tamil Nadu also confirm this, with R1a1 , a Y-DNA(paternal) haplogroup mostly associated with Indian Brahmins / Upper Castes, being present in about a whopping 27% of Tamil males, despite the actual General Category (GC)/ Brahmin populace in Tamil Nadu being only around 3%.
Tamil Devadasis were known by various names such as tevatasi, tevaratiyar, patiyilar, talicceri pendukal, tevanar makal, cottikal, atikalmar, manikkattar, kanikaiyar, and koyil pinakkal . All medieval era Tamil kings had patronized Devadasi system. There archeological evidence from those time periods , which shows that despite being Ati-Shudras and Dalits, the Devadasis had rights which were not available to their own caste members who did other proffesions. These rights included the right to wear certian ornaments, right to have maid servants, right to sit with kings and eat betel leaves. However after the fall of the Tamil kings, and centuries of foreign non-Tamil rule , the royal patronage of Devadasi system came to a nil, and only the cons of the system were left behind. Most of these Devadasis lived a miserable life far from their old splendor, with many of them being engaged in prostitution without much boundaries . In colonial era, all devadasis were branded with the same immoral label by the colonial authorities. Stigma against Devadasis reached an all time high, with many of them converting to Christianity under Protestant missionaries while some of them adopting Tamil Brahmin cultural practices.
One of the Devadasi clusters, known as Isai Vellalars had traditionally practiced the artform of Sadirattam or Parathaiyarattam. This was learnt by a social reformer and dance enthusiast by the name E.Krishna Iyer, who learnt the artform and made it into a sanitized classical artform known as Bharatanatyam. But despite this, due to the negatives associated with this system, the Devadasi system was on its way to be abolished. The first legal initiative to outlaw the Devadasi system dates back to the 1934 Bombay Devadasi Protection Act. However this act pertained only to the Bombay province of British Raj and therefore was not of any releif to Tamil Devadasis who lived in Madras Province. In 1947, the year of Indian independence, the Madras Devadasi (Prevention of Dedication) Act outlawed dedication in the southern Madras Presidency. The Devadasi system was formally outlawed in all of India in 1988, although social and economic pressures on mostly Dalit families have ensured that the Devadasi system is still widely practiced illegally in some places.
References
(1) 'The origin and historical development of Devadasi system in India' , by Y Ramachandra Reddy and RM Sridevi
(2)'Religious Thought and Life in India' ,by Monier Williams
(3) Genetic variation in South Indian castes: evidence from Y-chromosome, mitochondrial, and autosomal polymorphisms, by W.S.Watkins
(4)'Castes and Tribes of South India' , by Edgar Thurston
(5)'Devadasi System in India and Its Legal Initiatives' , by Kalaivani R
(6)“Abuse of Lower Castes in South India: The Institution of Devadasi” by Maria Costanza Torri
(7)“DEVADASIS – SINNERS OR SINNED AGAINST: An attempt to look at the myth and reality of history and present status of Devadasis”, by Anil Chawla