Performing Devotion, Negotiating Livelihood : Devadasis in Telugu Padams

In medieval Andhra, the construct of gender was intricately meshed with the socio-economic structures of the period.The decisive spaces for economic exchanges and manifestation of gender were the temples.The involvement of women within these temples were materialized in multiple forms let it be the queens or the elite women acting as patrons and contributing ample donations.These women also actively involved in the temple centric economies and in the ritualistic and cultural landscapes associated with it, even while they remained compliant to the patriarchal structures.Devadasis, a sect of women related to temples, had a liminal space between the sacred and the profane.This paper is an attempt to critically examine the role of devadasis in temple related culture and economy, their autonomy and subjugation in Andhra as discerned in the select 'padams' of Telegu literature.Dedicated to temples, the devadasi women were dexterous in art and music and also played a significant role in the economy of temple centred society.Their duty was imbedded in the symbolic idea of serving the deity; aptly represented by the phrase "when God was a Customer" hence implicating the duality of their role as ritualistic intermediaries and economic participants.In the examination of the corollaries of their service, this paper seeks to look at how the associations of Devadasis with the temple deities, patrons, rulers and institutions mirror the dynamics of power, gender and economy in medieval Andhra.Devadasis as composite agents of tradition and transition involved in a paradoxical space where divinity and economy are deeply correlated.