Dedication Culture

Abstract

The institution of Devadasi has been vastly studied since pre colonial era by the social scientists, social workers and policy makers. But then the debate on Devadasifinds its relevance in the present day debate in feminist and caste literature for its mere presence in the 2 1^st century Modern India. This paper attempts to present a local form of dedication culture in the light ofa lternate sexuality which in the larger literature on Devadasi is located within the framework of temple culture. This paper analyses a local form of popular dedication culture and explores predicaments in understanding it as an alternative sexuality and the convolution that an alternative form of sexual culture brings out. The data used in this study is derived from an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Northern Karnataka. The actual field work was done focussing on the institution of Devadasi and the data used in the paper is ethnographers observation by being part of people for about ten months in the field, experiences and information shared during the whole process off ieldwork.