By Frederique Apffel Marglin
ISBN-10: 0195617312
ISBN-13: 9780195617313
One of the 1,500 devotees of the Hindu temple and cult of Jagannatha at Puri are a handful of ladies often called "devadasis" or, actually, "female servants of the deity," who're linked to either chastity and concubinage and prostitution. This booklet specializes in the stress among the purity and impurity of the devadasis, and examines principles approximately kingship, energy, sexual purity, the function and standing of girls, and different vital issues of Hindu spiritual and cultural lifestyles which are linked to such rituals.
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Additional info for Wives of the God-King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri
Sample text
T he deis, like the devadasis, did n ot reside permanently in the palace. They had their ow n houses in the tow n. H ow ever, this dei told me that while she w as the king’s m istress, (from whom she had children) she lived at the palace. But both deis and devadasis normally reside in their own houses with their m others, sisters, m other’s brothers and the latters’ wives and children. T h ey could receive other men in their house. A ccording to the dei, they had sexual relations m osdy with temple brahmin servants and m em bers o f the royal entourage.
A time and place was set for the meeting. The devadasis asked me to come with them. T he three of us came at the appointed time and place and waited for two hours. N o one came and no w ord was sent. The devadasis felt this was an insult. Later I met the person from Delhi and his wife at the concert where the devadasis had not been invited. The dancer was introduced by her husband who spoke about this great tradition and the women who had kept it alive, the devadasis. H ow ever, neither he nor his wife, nor the member o f the O rissa academy met the devadasis on that occasion nor did they send any explanation or apology for the m issed appointment.
T he category o f the auspicious also reveals itself to be central to an understanding o f those rituals of the devadasis which are claimed by sectarian religious traditions. The evening ritual in the temple has an O riy a Vaishnavite exegesis, a form of Bhakti devotionalism very close to the Bengali (G au d iya) form of Vaishnavism. The claim made in the present study is that an understanding of the cultural meanings o f the categories of the auspicious and the inauspicious does throw a new , h op efu lly insightful, fight on this particular sectarian tradition.
Wives of the God-King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri by Frederique Apffel Marglin
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