thEvidiyA The Divine Damsels

With facial expressions, with heart touching music, with elegant movements did she
perform in the halls of temples. She was ten, from which she would be known as a
divine dancer. She danced, she sung for the pleasure of god, it was meant to be.
Her mother was a servant of the lord in the similar way. Dance was their passion.
While she danced sathir and her mother sang beautiful hymns, she grew up. Only to
find herself, pushed into a room of darkness. Whose story am I narrating? My
heroine is the lady of devadasi tradition ! Todays tamil world might abuse each
other in the name of her, yet she remains pure. She is now the thEvidiyA, once she
was dEvan adiyAL The servant of god !
Today we boast about our classical music and dance to the western world, but we
have killed their pioneers and torch bearers. The dEvadAsis were a society that was
dedicated to the service of temples. While the men played musical instruments, the
ladies danced and sung, only to the pleasure of the god whom they idealized. It is
such a shame that our society looked upon these dancers as mere pieces of flesh
and made them manushya dAsis (Servant of men).

While the society started denying many basic needs of hers, she moved to the
courts of kings and other merchants, only to sell herself for money. The mouth that
sang the glories and pastimes of god sung the beauty of an old mans appearance.
Over the years, she would be called a prostitute. As did it happen the caste system
of India, prostitution came by birth to these women. Soon after her grandchildren
did not know their fathers name, hence took their mothers as initials.
Today, we go to huge temples like Srirangam and appreciate the architecture and
the grandeur of the temples. The community has forgotten what my heroine has
done to preserve it to you. While the Mughal king attacked Srirangam, looted its
wealth and was planning to destroy much more, it was vellayamma, a true dEvan
adiyAl, who by her beauty took the Mughal king to the top of a tower as if to enjoy
in its heights and pushed him down, only to save the treasures of Indian culture to
you !
I do not deny that she is well remembered! You named the tower as veLLai
gOpuram, today it stands alone in pure white only to fool people it got its name
from the white colour.
There were many veLLayammAs in India, who were instrumental in bringing down
classical music, classical dance and protect temples all over the country. Today the
brahminical community has stolen these two from her and says it is all theirs. Every
sabha during this season is mostly occupied by a particular community both on the

dias and below in the seats, either without knowing or ignoring the fact that it is a
stolen treasure and that the owner has been murdered.
While I am well aware that nothing can be done to revive the tradition, I only hope
someday, the use of her name as an abuse would come to an end, if not we
appreciate her contributions to our culture.