by Police - Bureau of Police Research and Development

The Indian Police Journaland private governmental jurisdiction extended speedily and it ispresumed that Devadasis must have assumed their growth on similarpattern; a Centre of sexual attraction for the feudal in the garb ofreligious celebrations.It is said that Tirunavukkarasu or Appar was a Jaina, converted toSaivism and he was also instrumental in the conversion of MahendraVarman. About Tirujnanasambandhar, it is said that on the invitation ofthe Queen Mangaiyar-kk arasi, he proceeded to Madurai, the Pandyancapital, in order to undertake the historic mission of saving the cityfrom the clutches of Jainism. He had to undergo a series of trials and heKulaicirai Nayanar, he eventually succeeded in winning over the KingNedumaran to the Saiva fold. 50 The occasion of the King’s conversionwas celebrated by the impalement of eight thousand Jains, and thestory goes that a temple festival at Madurai commemorates this eventeven to this day. 51 Apart the possible margin for exaggeration, we doengendered such intolerance on both sides 52 , and in the root of it wasthe related story of Devadasi and the sexual exploitation.Temple prostitution was most common in the south, where it existeduntil recent times. The wild fertility cults of the early Tamils involvedorgiastic dancing, and their earliest literature shows that prostitutionwas common among them and religious prostitution came naturallyto the Dravidians. 53 “Many inscriptions and charters of the medievalsouth according to A.L. Basham, “commemorating donation to templesrefer specially to Devadasis; for instance, a general of Vikramaditya-VI,Calukya, named Mahadeva, is recorded as founding a temple in thememory of his late mother, with quarters for the most beautiful templeprostitutes in the country 54 , a veiled centre of sex sale.In the Rigveda, vra, a she-elephant denoted the same as Ganika 55the illicit lover, jara and jattini - male and female lover of a marriedspouse, which also fall in this category. Extramarital love may havebeen voluntary and unpaid, but there is the possibility of it, beingregarded by the male partner as a form of service for which he wasobliged to pay in some form. In some of the Rigveda mantras, womenwere found common to more than one man. In Rigveda 56 the glaringstorm gods Maruts are said to have been associated with suddenlyappearing lightning just as men become associated with a sadhaniwoman, meaning thereby a courtesan or a prostitute.190 January - March, 2013