In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

134 Chapter 6 Perhaps, it was not just about practice but also about relaxing and enjoying the character portrayals, ramya suggested. As i worked on this idea, the padam form became easier to master and perform. After a few months of classes, when we became more familiar with each other, ramya and i began discussing how different heroines would be classed, that is, the theoretical ways of classifying the nayika. ramya explained the levels were many and complex. For instance, we discussed the idea of the ashtanayikas. Although the literal translation of the word suggests eight different heroines, these are psychological states of being. A nayika is a Vasakasajja, when she is dressed up to receive her lover; a Virahotkanthita, when she is distressed at his absence; a Svadhinapatika, if she is confident of her love and her lover who is under her subjection; a Kalahantarita, when she, having repulsed her lover out of indignation, suffers remorse; a Khandita, when she is afflicted with agony (anger) on account of the absence of her lover, who has gone to meet another woman; a Vipralabdha, when she does not find him at the appointed place and/or feels cheated; a Prositabhartrka, when her lover is away for an indefinite period; and a Abhisarika, when she, lovesick and having renounced all modesty and bashfulness, goes to meet her lover. i began questioning ramya about this history and what she thought about the devadasi practice because, after all, the padam form exemplified their lifestyle. These padams were, in essence, the characteristic item in their repertoire that most comprehensively represented the devadasi lifestyle because they were erotic spiritual texts that spoke of the lover as the human manifestation of the Divine God. The devadasis were married to God, and thus any padam pieces they performed would be the finest symbol of their relationship to their lover, who was actually God. Dating back to the seventh century, devadasis had a history of performing within temples, dedicating their dance to God. These women lived in a liminal place, mediating between God and humans, because they were married to the deity of the temple in which they served and simultaneously could take on human lovers.7 The devotion to God, Bhakti, as practiced by Hindus and devadasis, was not something unusual in Hindu culture. Bhakti itself could be seen on many levels. An important aspect of Bhakti included the worship of God as a human lover known as madhurya or shringara—erotic spirituality. The devadasis, being married to God, were themselves the exemplary embodiment of shringara.8 The insertion of devadasis in the temples can be correlated to the Bhakti movement that also began around the seventh century in south india. Thus, the devadasis were reflecting aspects of the Bhakti movement through their very existence and especially through their dance practices within and outside the temple. Negotiating Cultural Nationalism and Minority Citizenship 135 Poets such as Ksetrayya, whose texts were performed as padams, lived among devadasis in the sixteenth century. Ksetrayya, the poet and composer, was involved with the court, the devadasis, and their courtesan lifestyle, which is reflected in his writing (P. srinivasan 1997). One could argue that Ksetrayya’s padams are a historical archive of his relationship with a devadasi.9 The devadasi lifestyle was embedded within the padam. For instance, the padam Andagadav auduvu lera describes implicitly the courtesan lifestyle. The text is erotic and sexual. The mention of the lord God Adivaraha takes it to the liminal place of erotic spirituality. is it any wonder that the devadasis would identify so keenly with the shringara padams? After all, these padams reflected their day-to-day existence and their unique relationship to God, to the core. in fact, it could be said that the devadasi was the personification of shringara and therefore of the padam as well. But my point to ramya was that middle-class, and often Brahmin, indian women, such as she and i, especially in twentieth-century india or America, did not live in such liminal spaces. so how could we truly understand and perform padams? she gave me the standard answer then that i came to expect from many of the first-generation gurus. That is that the devadasis had fallen into ill repute and had let their art forms go. Their practice was not the “high art” that Bharata natyam was today, and if it had not been for rukmini Devi and the male gurus of the devadasis, we would...

Share