Devadasi system is a hindu religious practice in parts of southern India, including Andhra Pradesh. A mulnivasi girl-child is married to a deity(god) or a temple.
That particular god or temple becomes her husband.The marriage usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty, and the girl to become a prostitute for upper-caste community members. Such girls are known as JOGINI. They are forbidden(not allowed) to enter into a real marriage.
Our so called sacred Hindu Religious beliefs and caste system, have been recognized as the stimulants behind the perpetuation of this ugly phenomenon.
The begining could be perhaps mapped out in the inscription found in temples.
"The word ‘’Emperumandiyar’’ which was used in the sense of Vaishnavas before 966 A.D, got the meaning of dancing girls, attached to Vishnu temples.
In inscriptions of about 1230-1240 A.D. in the time of Raja Raya III. [Raghavacharya: I,118], in Maharashtra, they are called 'Devadasis' meaning female servants of God'.
It should also be noted that the emergence of the "devadasis" has been linked to the downfall of Buddhism in India." The fact that devadasis were Buddhist nuns(mulnivasis) can be deduced from many evidences.
Devadasi system is unknown to ancient India. Why because, ancient Jaatakas, Kautillya or Vatsayana did not mention them, but later puranas found them useful.
The system started only after the fall of Buddhism and records of them start appearing around 1000 A.D." [bharatiya sanskruti kosh, IV, 448]. It is viewed that the "devadasis" are the Buddhist nuns(mulnivasis) who were degraded to the level of prostitutes, after the temples were taken over by the Brahmins during the times of their resurgence after the fall of Buddhism.
The Devadasi system was set up, according to a Times of India report (10-11-1987) as a result of a conspiracy between the feudal class(uppercast landlords) and the priests (Brahmins). The brahmins, with their ideological and religious hold over the peasants and craftsmen, devised a means that gave prostitution their religious sanction in the name of God
Poor low-caste girls, initially sold at private auctions, were later dedicated to the temples. They were then initiated into prostitution.
One can refer to the list put forward by the famous Indian scholar Jogan Shankar to determine the evolution of the system. According to him, the following are the reasons which played a major role in supplanting the system with firm roots:
"1. as a substitute for human sacrifice(foolish hindu religious belief)
2. as a rite to ensure the fertility of the land and the increase of
human being and animal population.
3. sprang from the custom of providing sexual hospitality to strangers
by upper cast people.
4. licentious worship offered by a Brahmins , subservient to a degraded and
vested interests of priestly Class.
5. And lastly,to create custom in order to exploit lower caste people in India
by upper castes and classes.
On the basis of the historical studies and research one can see the way the Brahmins established "sacred prostituion" in the name of hindu gods, and grew to become a part of the Indian society.
"Vasant Rajas, "Devdasi: Shodha ani bodha", (marathi), Sugava Prakashan, Pune, 1997, mentions of an inscription of 1004 A.D., in Tanjor Temple says that
the numbers of devdasis(mulnivasi women) to be 400 in Tanjor
450 devadasis (mulnivasi women) in Brahideswara temple and
500 devasasis (mulnivasi women) in Sorti Somnath temple."
"According to Chau Ju-Kua, Gujarat contained nearly 4000 temples
in which lived over 20,000 devadasis (mulnivasi prostitutes) whose function was to sing and dance twice daily in front of upper cast people while offering food to the deities and while presenting flowers.
" Eminent Indian historians like R.C Mazumder and U.N Ghoshal have corroborated these facts. They have acknowledged the "high propertion" in the number of the "devadasis(mulnivasis)"in the temples during the medieval period.
So my dear mulnivasi brothers, it’s a shame on us to pray to Brahmins and their ugly Hindu Gods who made thousands of our mulnivasi mothers and sisters as prostitutes.
We should feel ashamed to go their temples and bow our head in frount of a Brahmins.
Every mulnivasi (sc, st, obc ) should realize that we are being exploited by uppercast people.
Every mulnivasi should protest this. We should fight for rights and human dignity.
For this it is very important to know our history(who are we? and why we become lower cast? who made us low casts? etc )
Our history will be posted soon.
Jai mulnivasi-----------jai bheem
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