Devadasi Tradition and Artist Ratnabali Kant’s Reaction on the Orthodox Practice through Dance Theater Performance

The tradition of 'Devadasi' was related to the magnificent temples of South India built during the kingdom of Pallava, Chola and Pandya. According to historical and socio-religious records 'Devadasi' was recognized as a learned and talented woman and spiritual devotee to the deities of temples. They were trained in Indian classical dances like Bharatanatyam and Odissi. During this time every temple was reverberated with the sound of music and this profession attributed with high reputation. Till the eleventh century these religious rituals continued under the patronization of Kings or in charge of the temple academicians for smooth functioning. But with fall of Pallava, Pandya and Chola dynasties this dignified tradition of temples undergone to degeneration. At this time temples become poorer and lost their patrons, devadasis suffered poverty, misery and in some cases adopted the profession of prostitution to earn their livelihood. The nineteen and twentieth century withered the personae of devadasiand modern status given to her termed as Mistress. Instead of royal or temple's academician's patronage, rich men of the vicinity came forward to patronize devadasis and exploited their helplessness. After the total collapse of temples some devadasi women migrated to nearby towns or other far-off cities and started practicing prostitution. Corruption kept on growing, consequently tradition of becoming devadasi declared illegal by Karnataka state government in 1982 and Andhra Pradesh in 1988. Presently devadasi's are known as jogin in Andhra Pradesh, who are working as labour and facing further exploitation forfulfilingthe needs of livelihood. Artist Ratnabali Kant researched the tradition of davadasifrom historical, religious rituals and psychologicalpoint of view. She reached to the conclusion that this tradition was inappropriate and against the nature, which caused the whole community of devadasis to get suffered immeasurably. She performed a demonstration through a dance-theatre-performance to convey her opinion about the tradition, which is still continuing at some backward places of India. The above issue has been elaborately and scientificallydiscussed in the proposed research paper.