Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu
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...
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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.
Methods of Transliteration, Abbreviation, and Citation1Introduction3Devadasis and Dancing-girls3In a Different Landscape182Discerning and Delineating the Figure of the Temple Woman37Definitions and Locations37Devotees and Daughters of God483Temple Women as Temple Patrons65Property and Piety: Women and the Temple65Patterns of Patronage of Temple Women754Temple Women as Temple Servants89The Design of Temple Life in Medieval Tamilnadu89Reputation, Recognition, and Responsibility98Serving the Temple102Service, Support, and Status1265Identity, Geography, Religion, and Kinship135Temple Women and the Medieval Religious Landscape135Daughters of Women and Daughters of God1496Conclusions161The Temple Women of Medieval Tamilnadu161Politics and Place, Margins and Centers164From the Chola Period Temple Woman to the Twentieth-Century Devadasi172App. I181App. II183App. III185Notes193Bibliography263Index291
