?What can they give, these gods, who live off the charity of people??
?Basavanna, a Bhakti saint
AS A student of the classics at Brown University, US, and later anthropology at the London School of Economics, UK, Catherine Rubin Kermorgant was fascinated by Greek fertility cults and oracles. After working in films and television for a number of years, she began researching and writing documentary films in Paris. In Paris, she befriended an Indian called Dilip Patil, who had grown up in a village in India, worked on commercials in Mumbai and then made his way to Paris to attend a French film school. It was Patil who first mentioned devadasis to Kermorgant and she was incredulous: ?Women dedicated to temples and taught to sing and dance for the gods? Was it some sort of fertility cult, like in ancient Greece?? Soon, she realised that India, ?where ancient ecstatic cults thrived alongside vibrant artistic and intellectual communities?, was a place where her interests met.
In August 2002, she landed in Bangalore and began searching for somebody who could speak Kannada and travel with her to the northern districts of Karnataka to help her make and research a documentary film on devadasis for BBC. Together with Vani Dee, who taught at Bangalore University, she set out to meet the devadasi women of Kalyana, a remote village in north Karnataka.
Did Kermorgant get to make her documentary? That?s a story in itself, but this book tells a heart-breaking story of women who are at the margins of society even in the 21st century; women who are commonly called ?temple prostitutes? and whose life hasn?t changed much despite the country?s progress. Even though, officially, the devadasi system is banned in India, many modern-day devadasis, says Kermorgant, are trafficked to Mumbai and elsewhere. During her research, as Kermorgant slowly gained the trust of the women, she came to know that the word ?devadasi? is taboo among Indians. The women, mostly steeped in poverty, find it difficult to even survive. Girls are ?dedicated? to goddess Yellamma at a young age, often so that other members of their family may survive with the money earned. ?Devadasis often say that if they submit to Yellamma?s will and worship her, they will achieve liberation, or at least improve their station in the next life. But submitting to Yellamma?s will means fulfilling their dharma, their duty as devadasis; it means providing sexual services to men. Thus, the Yellamma cult is a double-edged sword: while holding out the promise of redemption, it condemns the women to a life of prostitution.?
Kermorgant spent time with the devadasis, ate with them and was soon welcomed by the community as an elder sister: they would call her ?Catrin akka?. During her stay there, Kermorgant learnt how to tie a sari and wear a bindi.
The book fascinates?and shocks?with stories of devadasis like Sumithra, Renuka, Ranavva, Shanti, Rukmini, Ganga and Chandra. In a society obsessed with social hierarchy, as Kermorgant finds out, these women are at the bottom of the ladder. Most devadasis are reviled as ?untouchable prostitutes?. As Chandra tells her: ?Of the hundred or so devadasis in Kalyana, only four have longstanding relationships with high-caste landlords? increasingly, we are obliged to take many men. As we only earn when we are young and beautiful, we have to work hard while we can, and save.? None of them know how to read or write.
The devadasis overcame their apprehensions of a foreign film crew and agreed to talk on camera for Kermorgant?s documentary after a lot of hard work. However, on the editing table, Kermorgant and Patil couldn?t agree on how the devadasis should be projected. The documentary was released after being heavily censored and Kermorgant was ?devastated by the travesty of a film we had made?. But now, thankfully, there?s a book about the incredible journey these women embark on?though not by choice.
Sudipta Datta is a freelancer