ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores an aspect of the encounter with the Other that has not been dealt with by Gerry Farrell in his excellent study Indian Music and the West, and has also been ignored by writers on bharata natyam, the classical dance of Southern India. He shows that India’s temple dancers and singers have a long history in European travel literature, giving a brief overview of the way they were portrayed. The author focuses on Jacob Haafner’s remarkable essay on the devadasis; published in his Reize in eenen Palanquin, it was written in memory of his beloved, the young dancer Mamia. Recent scholars have shown that temple women or devadasis had firmly established themselves as professional experts in the performing arts by the thirteenth century. The author demonstrates that Haafner’s description of the devadasis was far more informative than those of other travellers, including the lurid account of the Abbe Dubois.
