| Summary: | Written in the form of an historical fiction, this thesis explores the multiple
influences that were active in the lives of temple dancers in Southern India from
1861 to 1947. It addresses the question of whether or not the devadasis were
prostitutes, placing this debate in the context of conflicting colonial, Hindu and
reform movement pressures, influences directing the decline and disappearance
of the temple dancing tradition. In gathering information about this period, I have
drawn from three main sources: colonial literature of the time, modern feminist
research, and dance scholarship on the nature and history of the technical
aspects of temple dancing. My aim has been to reconstruct, as accurately as
possible, a close approximation of a devadasi's life, and to compare how it differs
from those lived by previous generations of temple dancers. === Arts, Faculty of === Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, Institute for === Graduate
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