Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu

by Orr, Leslie C.

• ISBN13: 9780195099621
• ISBN10: 0195099621
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Through the use of epigraphical evidence, Leslie C. Orr brings into focus the activities and identities of the temple women (devadasis) of medieval South India. This book shows how temple women's initiative and economic autonomy involved them in medieval temple politics and allowed them to establish themselves in roles with particular social and religious meanings. This study suggests new ways of understanding the character of the temple woman and, more generally, of the roles of women in Indian religion and society.

Table of Contents

Methods of Transliteration, Abbreviation, and Citation	xi
Introduction	3	(34)
Devadasis and Dancing-girls	3	(15)
In a Different Landscape	18	(19)
Discerning and Delineating the Figure of the Temple Woman	37	(28)
Definitions and Locations	37	(11)
Devotees and Daughters of God	48	(17)
Temple Women as Temple Patrons	65	(24)
Property and Piety: Women and the Temple	65	(10)
Patterns of Patronage of Temple Women	75	(14)
Temple Women as Temple Servants	89	(46)
The Design of Temple Life in Medieval Tamilnadu	89	(9)
Reputation, Recognition, and Responsibility	98	(4)
Serving in the Temple	102	(24)
Service, Support, and Status	126	(9)
Identity, Geography, Religion, and Kinship	135	(26)
Temple Women and the Medieval Religious Landscape	135	(14)
Daughters of Women and Daughters of God	149	(12)
Conclusions	161	(20)
The Temple Women of Medieval Tamilnadu	161	(3)
Politics and Place, Margins and Centers	164	(8)
From the Chola Period Temple Woman to the Twentieth-Century Devadasi	172	(9)
Appendix I	181	(2)
Appendix II	183	(2)
Appendix III	185	(8)
Notes	193	(70)
Bibliography	263	(28)
Index	291