ABSTRACT
In his discussion of the South Indian devadāsī tradition, Amrit Srinivasan asserted that
the devadāsī dance sādir was ‘reinvented’ as the classical dance form bharat and that ‘the modifications introduced into the content of the dance-style were a consequence not so much of its “purification”…but its re-birth in a more “proper” class’ (1985:1875). The upper classes who now teach bharat to their daughters as part of their general education, ‘clearly see themselves as having “rescued” the art form
from the fallen “prostitute”—the devadasi’ (ibid.). As with certain modifications were made to the content of the dance and certain bawdy and erotic
elements were eliminated. The reconstructed form bharat is now deemed suited to being performed and patronised by upper-class girls. But as Srinivasan explains, ‘in a very real and practical sense it is only the devadasi dance they are perpetuating’
(ibid.). Similarly, may have been ‘rescued’ from the disreputable courtesan tradition and endowed with devotional qualities, but it has essentially remained a suggestive and attractive song form whose primary raison d’être is entertainment. Sanitisation has taken place not as an isolated objective, but in order to enable the genre to exist in its new context of a musical form of entertainment performed for, and often by,
the bourgeoisie. In Srinivasan’s words, has been ‘re-born’ in a more ‘proper class’.
