by Police - Bureau of Police Research and Development

The Indian Police JournalIn the beginning, Devadasi system was not started with evil intentions,a purely religious act but it exposes demeaning human values andhelplessness of the women against the donors, worst than the petanimals. Kalahan says, King Jalauka had dedicated 100 women from hisharem, well versed in music and dance to the Temple of Jyestharudrafor the services of the god 24 once they were inducted in temples; theyremained so till mostly the end of their life in different capacities. Someinstances of their marriage with important dignitaries are also found.King Lalitaditya met two hereditary Devadasis in a jungle near thevillage of Suravardhana, who spent their time in singing and dancingat the spot, which was once the site of a temple and subsequently,the King married both of them and brought them to his palace. 25 KingNarendraprabha 26 was given the wife of a prosperous merchant (givenin donation on his liking), but when he (King) refused, the merchantdedicated his loving wife to the temple as Devadasi and enabled theKing to marry. Similarly, King Kalasa married Kayya, a Devadasi 27 andthe King Utkarsa kept Sahaja, another Devadasi as his concubine. 28Prostitution means “promiscuous sexual intercourse, intercourse forhire, whether in money or kind with a prostitute” and a prostitute isa “woman, who sells herself for sexual purposes to a great numberof men in succession and with little or no choice among them”. Inancient Indian texts synonyms of the word ‘prostitute’ are found asGanika, Pratiganika, Rupajiva, Vesya, Dasi, Devadasi, Pumscali,Silpakarika, Kausikastri and Rupadasi, meaning differently of somespecial kinds of prostitutes. Similarly, some other words like Adasi,Avaruddha, Krtavarodha, or Krtaparadha, Duhitrka, Kumari are foundused of some kinds of prostitute. Besides these, the list of synonyms forthe word 'prostitute' is said to be more than 250 in different Sanskritliterary works. 29In Kautilyan Arthasastra, Ganika is described as a Government servantand the ‘Ganikadhyaksha’, the Superintendent of prostitutes, wasto look after them. The word ‘Ganika’ always denoted the highestdegree of prostitutes - a courtesan in almost all the ancient textsexcept a few Sanskrit literary works in which Ganika was, very often,used loosely with other words to denote a prostitute. Hemchandrain Abhidhan-clntamani enumerated a Sadharanastri: ganika, vesya,panyangana, panangana, bhujisya, lanjika, rupajiva, varavadhu andvaramukhya (Sandharanastri Ganika Vesya Panyapanangana BhujisyaJanuary - March, 2013187