In the past, the marriage of a devadasi, that is a girl born to that group (usually out of a relationship with Brahmin servitors, royal family members or upper caste men) or adopted into it and dedicated pre-puberty to temple service, could take place only with special permission from the king which happened infrequently. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Shrouded, like so much abuse of children, in holy gibberish, devadasi is essentially a legitimised system of trading girls as indentured concubines. ❋ Unknown (2011)
Gripping but depressing film, in which Beeban Kidron – director of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and one Bridget Jones film, among much else – visits India to illuminate the illegal but still practised cult of the devadasi. ❋ Unknown (2011)
A devadasi (a prostitute and devotee of the goddess Yellamma) laments her life as a sex worker but revels in the worship of a female deity who has come to mean more to her than her own mother. ❋ Unknown (2010)
There is a lot of similarity to be seen with the devadasi tradition in South India – from this article: ... ❋ Unknown (2009)
But for every Saroja who will be married at 13 because her mother, a devadasi (prostitute) in Chikanahalli Village, Karnataka, cannot afford to pay a dowry, there is a Lakshmi, who is serving her second-term as the panchayat leader of Kadinamala village in Kotagiri district. ❋ Unknown (2009)
Filed under: Firoze Shakir Bollywoods Most Wanted , devadasi hijdas, eunuchs ❋ Unknown (2008)
"The upper castes wouldn't drink from the same glass as a devadasi -- but they make use of her body." ❋ Unknown (2008)
Rani had been telling me in the car about the privileges of being a devadasi, about the way people respected her, how she was regarded as auspicious and was called even to upper-caste weddings to give her blessings. ❋ Jan (2008)
The Sisters of the Good Shepherd have been fighting devadasi practices there for 20 years. ❋ Unknown (2008)
Her musical and social traditions have parallels in the devadasi women dedicated to male deities system in Tamilnadu before its reform and classicization in the early twentieth century. ❋ Jan (2008)
Dedications of devadasi girls have been supervised by village priests in southern India for thousands of years. ❋ Unknown (2008)
At her dedication ceremony, she had no idea what being a devadasi meant. ❋ Unknown (2008)
In many places, there's no stigma associated with being a devadasi -- in fact, it's a respectable solution for poverty-stricken Dalits. ❋ Unknown (2008)
"My parents had eight girls, and wanted a boy," shrugs Narzama, a devadasi dressed in a faded red sari, cradling her toddler outside the Manvi temple. ❋ Unknown (2008)
The government has stepped up efforts to wipe out the devadasi tradition, too. ❋ Unknown (2008)
