Nityasumangali: Devadasi Tradition in South India by Saskia C. Kersenboom - 2011

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2011. 3rd edition. Softcover. New. 15 x 23 cm. The phenomenon of the devadasi has suffered greatly from faulty, culture-bound evaluations. The present monograph does not aim at judging these earlier evaluations, nor does it claim to give a `truly objective` description of what the devadasi tradition was; it rather tries to follow the inherent mode of thought, namely, what the devadasi tradition meant within the frame of Hinduism, and its transformation into a living cultural phenomenon functioning significantly in the context of the Hindu t Printed Pages: 226. NA