A Sacred Role That Became Grounds for Legal Abolition

In several regions and periods, the devadasi institution became entangled with sexual exploitation, as some devadasis, particularly in later centuries and under conditions of colonial era economic pressure on temple institutions, were pushed into forms of prostitution loosely dressed in religious language rather than genuine temple service, a development that provoked a sustained nineteenth and twentieth century reform campaign, often called the anti nautch movement, led by both Indian social reformers and colonial authorities. That campaign culminated in formal legal abolition of the institution across Indian states through a series of Devadasi Prohibition Acts, including Madras in 1947 and Karnataka's own prohibition legislation in 1982, and the practice of formal temple dedication is now illegal throughout India.

Soneji's research documents that vestigial and clandestine forms of the practice have nonetheless persisted in pockets of rural poverty in the decades since, a continuation driven far more by economic desperation than by intact religious institution, which is why any honest account of the devadasi role has to include this history of exploitation and abolition rather than presenting it only through its classical dance heritage.