ABSTRACT
The introduction to Muddupalani’s book Radhika Santvanamu (1936) by Bengaluru Nagaratnamu (1878–1952), also called Bangalore Nagaratnamma, from a devadasi family from Nanjangud, near Mysore, raises crucial issues about the status of a devadasi and her expertise in art forms. She unearthed the book by Muddupalani, hailing from a devadasi family in the 19th century. Muddupalani had transgressed the boundaries once by writing though she was a devadasi woman and next by writing in a frank manner. She was condemned even by social reformers for writing in an explicit manner. In such situations, Bengaluru Nagaratnamu decided to re-edit and re-publish Muddupalani’s book which was not getting the space and the acclaim it deserved. Her re-discovery, re-editing and re-publishing of Muddupalani’s book not only reclaim the condemned women’s voices but also create a counter public domain in order to de-stigmatise individuals and their identities. Bengaluru Nagaratnamu questions the male poets if they were not writing explicit poetry and why it became problematic if Muddupalani wrote in the same tradition. She says that she found many errors and gaps in the earlier version of the book and so she decided to re-publish it after careful editing and adding an introduction that was missing in earlier version. Also, she found a great difference between the handwritten copy and the printed copy. She firmly states that she decided to publish the book as it was brimming with aesthetic beauty and also as the author was a woman from her community. She concludes her Prologue by urging those who have respect for women to consider the wrongs in this book as rights since it is a woman who wrote this book and a woman who corrected it.
