William T Goodall forwarded: > http://skepdic.com/devadasi.html
Thanks for the link. Jogan Shankar's book looks interesting. Some of the other links on that page didn't work for me, and so I did a quick google on the subject. I didn't come across a site which had comprehensive information but if anyone is interested in more details that there is a *brief* overview of the phenomenon in this article: http://www.theglimpse.com/newsite/viewarticle2.asp?articleid=198 Sikhnet has 3 articles on the practice, and the last one discusses how it encourages child prostitution: http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/discussion.nsf/0/FEFC7B57EA898CA887256A8C 004AC269?OpenDocument This page takes a look at the growth of the system: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring02/Chattaraj/genesis.html The last two-thirds of this article discusses the system and diagrees with Shankar's hypothesis. It also mentions the role of devdasis in espionage, something I had forgotten: http://www.ambedkar.org/jamanadas/RiseAnd.htm Something else I stumbled across - The devdasis of the Vijaynagar Empire apparently operated from, and lived in, state owned insitutions. The revenue from these institutions financed the police force. Ritu. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
