Temple Dancing Girls Essay
Temple dancing girls
Shazia Shabnam, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh
India was a land of social traditions and religious practices and one of the religious practices was devadasi system. The Devadasi system is an ancient Indian practice that dates back several centuries. This practice involved dedicating young girls- sometimes as young as five or six years- to the worship and praise of the temple deity.
Devadasi literally means God’s (dev) female servant (dasi), where according to the indian practice, young pre-pubertal girls are ‘married off’, ‘given away’ in matrimony to God or a local religious deity of the temple. These girls are not allowed to marry as they were supposedly married to the god.
The tradition of dance and Indian socio-religious cultural system goes together. They were trained in music and dance who danced in the temple premises. The devdasi is dedicated to the service of the temple deity for life and there is no escape for her.
Among numerous North Indian records of the period 10th to 12th century A.D. there were many references to the presence of the dancing girls in the holy institution.
The precise time of its origin is still obscure, but the origin of this
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