Davesh Soneji: Siva’s Courtesans: Religion, Rhetoric, and Self-Representation in Early Twentieth-Century Writing by Devadasis
Uruttirakanikaiyar Katacarattirattu, “A Compilation of Stories about Siva’s Courtesans” is a Tamil text written in 1911 by a devadasi named Ancukam who lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka. As the title suggests, the bulk of the work consists of narratives about women from the Tamil literary past whom the author identifies as “Siva’s Courtesans,” or devadasis. It begins with the story of Paravaiyar, the consort of the Tamil Saiva saint (nayanar) Cuntaramurtti, and ends with Ancukam’s own autobiography. In this paper, I position Uruttirakanikaiyar in larger historical, literary and political contexts. Moving away from characterizations of modern devadasis as “temple women,” I hope to foreground an approach to devadasi social history that takes seriously their attempts to realize inclusion within the public sphere – specifically within the spaces of the nation – in the twentieth century. Highlighting the points of similarity and difference between Ancukam’s text and other writings by devadasis – including protest letters and memos written on the eve of devadasi reform – I demonstrate how twentieth-century writing by devadasis does not fit into any ready narrative or type. It breaches the standard oppositions between fact and fiction, the literal and the metaphorical, history-writing and literature. It spans a range of moral viewpoints, and as we will see in Ancukam’s text, it is often burdened by the anxieties and contradictions of reform discourse. Through their writing, devadasis mobilized rhetorical strategies in attempts to convince their audiences of their legitimate social location as rightful citizens of the emergent nation-state. But for all the polysemy of these rhetorical strategies, their writings did not affect a systemic change in perceptions of devadasis in the twentieth century. The promises assured by early twentieth century reformers did not materialize for women in the devadasi communities, even after reform legislation was passed. As failed citizens of the modern nation-state, women in devadasi communities today have inherited not only the subterfuges of “respectability,” but also a place in the history of modern Hinduism – as “temple prostitutes” – that they do not wish to occupy.
Biographical Statement:
Davesh Soneji teaches South Asian religions in the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University, Montreal. His research and teaching focuses on gender, ritual and performance in Tamil and Telugu-speaking South India. Prof. Soneji is co-editor, with Indira Viswanathan Peterson of Performing Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South India (Oxford University Press, 2008), and was recently commissioned by Oxford University Press to create Bharatanatyam: A Reader (2010). He is currently completing a social history of professional dancing women in Tamil and Telugu-speaking South India entitled Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Modernity and Memory in South India.
