from “The Sacred dance of the Devadasi”, by Daniela Riva 2017
Ebook:

“The provenance of Indian dance can be placed without any doubt in the temples of India. More precisely, it is related to the figure of the Devadasi, the consecrated priestesses - in other words, women dedicated to life of the temples. With the Devadasi, it is possible to establish the beginning of Indian sacred dance as an oral tradition transmitted for centuries. Originally, the Devadasi were trained women committed to please the deities and devoted to the all the activities of the holy spaces. They had simple duties in the hindu sanctuaries, such as lighting up the candles, put incense, prepare flowers and fruits for the offerings. They also had access to serious Sanskrit studies, sacred chant, dances and ritualistic movements. Traditionally, the Devadasi had a high status in society: they would spend their time honing their skills, rather than being mere housewives. What a radical position for a woman in Indian society in those times!”

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“How interesting it is to imagine the specific movements that these sacred priestesses were performing during the rituals of veneration. Unfortunately, we have only few rare witnesses to illustrate the gestures of the priestesses of the temple dances. The words of some famous surviving Devadasi, still living today, talk about sensual movements and strong expressive postures. It seems that the dance of the Devadasi included graceful movements and also very persuasive motions. We know that the movements of the Devadasi were later considered too sensual and too seductive for the bourgeois and conformist middle class of India, especially during the British colonization in the nineteen century:

Their motion were slow, their attitude generally not ungraceful, but occasionally too expressive for the meridian of chastity….

     How fascinating is the history and the development of Devadasi dance gestures! The style of their dance and the social role of the Devadasi has been very controversial over the centuries, and their history has been full of both radiant sublime majesty and miserable decay.
        During the dynasty of the Chola, around the first century B.C. in Tamil Nadu the system of Devadasi enjoyed a period of glory: for many years the temple dancers transmitted and preserved the preciousness of the sacred dance, and for centuries this form of art maintained many enchanting and fascinating elements, thanks to the Devadasi. While the Raja Raja Chola governed, four hundreds Devadasi lived together at the Bhrahadeeswara temple in Tanjore. They were called the thalacheri pendugal, and they were all women respected and supported by the government to perpetuate their sacred role and art.
The Chola kings maintained hundred of dancers in the temple. The tradition was nurtured, sustained, and kept alive by the successive Pandya, Nayaka, and Maratha rulers till the end of the nineteenth century.
   The prestige of the priestesses grew from century to century. The presence of a Devadasi always meant abundance, beauty and auspiciousness, especially during a wedding celebration. In fact, since a Devadasi could never be a widow, being symbolically married to God, her presence was one of the greatest blessings to the fortune of a newly family, according to Indian culture.
Because the Lord was her husband, the Devadasi was always auspicious (nityasumangali). Hence, one of the most important duties was to perform the arati ceremony.
      One of the most famous ceremonies in which a Devadasi had to take a part was the arati. The women lit up the ritual candles at the altar, collected in a metal precious plate and it was lifted to the head of every person, with the fire symbolically cleaning the energy and bringing new forces.”
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