Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu (South Asia Research)

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. Frontmatter Methods of Transliteration, Abbreviation, and Citation (page xi) ONE Introduction Devadāsīs and Dancing-girls (page 3) In a Different Landscape (page 18) TWO Discerning and Delineating the Figure of the Temple Woman (page 37) Definitions and Locations (page 37) Devotees and Daughters of God (page 48) THREE Temple Women as Temple Patrons Property and Piety: Women and the Temple (page 65) Patterns of Patronage of Temple Women (page 75) FOUR Temple Women as Temple Servants The Design of Temple Life in Medieval Tamilnadu (page 89) Reputation, Recognition, and Responsibility (page 98) Serving in the Temple (page 102) Service, Support, and Status (page 126) FIVE Identity, Geography, Religion, and Kinship Temple Women and the Medieval Religious Landscape (page 135) Daughters of Women and Daughters of God (page 149) SIX Conclusions The Temple Women of Medieval Tamilnadu (page 161) Politics and Place, Margins and Centers (page 164) From the Chola Period Temple Woman to the Twentieth-Century Devadāsī (page 172) Appendix I (page 181) Appendix II (page 183) Appendix III (page 185) Notes (page 193) Bibliography (page 263) Index (page 291)