Download or read book The Last Devadasi written by Barbara L. Baer and published by Open Books Publishing (UK). This book was released on 2018-09 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Passionate and forbidden love clashes with tradition and caste in a changing India. Kamala Kumari is more than a Gemini Studio starlet: she's a classical dancer trained in the age-old line of Devadasis, a caste set in place a thousand years ago when girls were first dedicated in south Indian temples to serve the gods and men. From the promise of art and devotion, the sacred dancers fell into the hands of priests who both exalted and betrayed them. Beautiful, brilliant and proud, Kamala struggles to escape the old ways, entangling her Indian assistant, Dutch lover, and his young American wife. With its turbulent passions amid social upheavals, The Last Devadasi takes readers on a sensual feast in the 1970s palm-shaded trading city of Madras.
Download or read book Unfinished Gestures written by Davesh Soneji and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-01-15 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Unfinished Gestures' presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Download or read book The Ballet Lover written by Barbara L. Baer and published by Open Books Publishing (UK). This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ballet Lover exposes the beauty and cruelty of ballet, the performances, the back stage moments, and the personal dramas of the famous ballet dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova as seen through the eyes of an American female journalist. Paris, 1970s: the orchestra plays the first ominous note of Swan Lake. In the audience sits Geneva, an American journalist and ballet lover, waiting for the heart-stopping beauty and seduction of the romantic duet to start, but instead she witnesses Rudolf Nureyev failing to catch his Russian partner Natalia Makarova, allowing her to fall with a crash upon the stage. Geneva interprets the fall as an act of cruelty, a man with all the fame and power in the world brutally letting fall his delicate, wraith-like artistic partner. When other critics defend Nureyev and accuse Makarova of causing her own tumble, Geneva vows revenge on the page, creating havoc in her own career and discovering surprising parallels between herself and the fallen ballerina. The Ballet Lover is a refined, mesmerizing, fictional account of two of the most celebrated dancers in the dance world, how one compromised the other, and how the drama on the stage often mirrors those played out in real life.
Download or read book Nityasumangali written by Saskia C. Kersenboom-Story and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1987 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book the author has first investigated the concept of the devadasi as found in the cultural history of South India, especialy in Tamil Nadu. Hereafter the function and form of the devadasi tradition are examined within the Temple Ritual of Tamil Nadu. This is not the study of the fact of the devadasi tradition, but of its meaning and the mode of production of that meaning.
Download or read book Nine Lives written by William Dalrymple and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2010-06-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet - then spends the rest of his life trying to atone for the violence by hand printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve herself to death. Nine people, nine lives; each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. William Dalrymple delves deep into the heart of a nation torn between the relentless onslaught of modernity and the ancient traditions that endure to this day. LONGLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE
Download or read book Devadasis in South India written by S. Jeevanandam and published by Gyan Books. This book was released on 2017 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Title 'Devdasis in South India: A Journey from sacred to a Profane Spaces written by S. Jeevanandam, Rekha Pande' was published in the year 2017. The ISBN number 9789351282105 is assigned to the Hardcover version of this title. This book has total of pp. 322 (Pages). The publisher of this title is Kalpaz Publications. This Book is in English. The subject of this book is Women Studies, ABOUT THE BOOK: - This book traces the gradual transition of the devadasi system from the early medieval to
Download or read book Servants of the Goddess written by Catherine Rubin Kermorgant and published by Random House India. This book was released on 2014-02-24 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Servants of the Goddess weaves together the heartbreaking, yet paradoxically life-affirming stories of five devadasis—women, in the clutches of an ancient fertility cult, forced to serve the gods. Catherine Rubin Kermorgant sets out attempting to make a documentary film about the lives of present-day devadasis. Through her, we meet and get to know the devadasi women of Kalyana, a remote village in Karnataka. As they grow to trust Kermorgant and welcome her as an honorary sister, we hear their stories in their own words: stories of oppression, discrimination, violence and, most importantly, resilience. Kermorgant becomes a part of these stories and finds herself unwittingly enmeshed in a world of gender and caste bias which extends far beyond Kalyana—all the way to Paris, where the documentary is to be edited and produced. Servants of the Goddess is a testament to women’s strength and spirit, and a remarkably astute analysis of gender and caste relations in today’s rural India.
Download or read book The Ice Palace Waltz written by Barbara L. Baer and published by . This book was released on 2020-01-31 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the autumn of 1895, citizens of Leadville, Colorado construct the Ice Palace: a last sign of hope for the fading silver mining town. There, on New Year's Eve beneath the magic lights and frozen ramparts of this fantastic ice marvel, Max Selig and the Grensky brothers, enemies and rivals, watch the youngest members of their families, June Selig and Nathan Grensky, dance and fall in love.Across the country in New York City, the waning years of the Gilded Age and a failed stock market gamble crushes the dreams of the Greenbaums. Only vivacious, copper-haired Tillie can save her family from ruin by entering into a marriage of convenience.Two decades later, Tillie, resigned to a passionless marriage, encourages her daughter Margie to live the romance she was denied and take a chance on the dashing, hard-drinking newsman Tommy Grensky, the Leadville Ice Palace lovers' son. But when the young couple travels to London in 1937, they encounter a changing Europe under the rise of Nazism.In The Ice Palace Waltz, two Jewish immigrant families-the rough and ready Western pioneers and the smooth, "our crowd" New Yorkers-come together in a riveting family saga amid the financial and social tumult of early twentieth century America. Baer's moving multigenerational novel traces the American Jewish experience and the enduring power of family and love.
Download or read book Wives of the God King written by Frédérique Apffel-Marglin and published by Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the tension between the purity and impurity of the "devadasis"--a handful of female devotees of the Hindu temple and cult of Jagannatha at Puri--this book examines ideas about kingship, power, sexual purity, the role and status of women, and other central concerns of Hindu religious and cultural life.
Download or read book The Pagoda Tree written by Claire Scobie and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2013-06-26 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weaving together the uneasy meeting of two cultures, The Pagoda Tree is a captivating story of love, loss and fate. Tanjore, 1765. Maya plays among the towering granite temples of this ancient city in the heart of southern India. Like her mother before her, she is destined to become a devadasi, a dancer for the temple. She is instructed in dance, the mystical arts and lovemaking. It is expected she will be chosen as a courtesan for the prince himself. But as Maya comes of age, India is on the cusp of change and British dominance has risen to new heights. The prince is losing his power and the city is sliding into war. Maya is forced to flee her ancestral home, and heads to the bustling port city of Madras, where East and West collide. Maya captivates all who watch her dance. Thomas Pearce, an ambitious young Englishman who has travelled to India to make his fortune, is entranced from the moment he first sees her. But their love is forbidden, and comes at enormous cost. 'Claire Scobie's seductive prose and immaculate layering of period detail capture India at her most exotic.' Susan Kurosawa 'Women's stories are rarely told in history, nor particularly honoured. The Pagoda Tree offers a powerful, sensual perspective on a time of great transformation in India.' Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow 'A rich and enthralling story handled with great skill by someone with a profound understanding of her material.' David Roach, screenwriter and film director 'A richly textured tale full of the sights, sounds and smells of India, with all its complex beauty and troubled history … ' Sydney Morning Herald 'A novel to be savoured … Its layering, the unravelling of the story, the subtext of the fortunes made and lost on cotton and silk, the evocative descriptions of saris themselves are all part of [its] tapestry.' The Age '[The Pagoda Tree] offers new ways of seeing the past.' Canberra Times 'Scobie's prose is eloquent … a fascinating, unique plot representing an interesting era in [India's] history.' The Mercury 'A story told with great panache.' Country Style 'Claire Scobie travels a vast and exotic terrain in her first novel.' Weekly Review 'This first novel by Claire Scobie would make a spectacular film.' Goodreading Magazine 'A nuanced and sophisticated exploration of the socio-historical realities that are inevitable when cultures collide.' The Hoopla
Download or read book Brahmakamal written by Lalsa Verma and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2021-04-07 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can a devadasi fall in love? Yes. But is she allowed to do so? A devadasi is an ever-auspicious one, presiding over the temple rituals, entertaining the king and brought up to respect and follow traditions mindlessly. Nitya does all that unquestioningly until she meets Prabhas. Prabhas, the young rebel who grew up in a devadasi household, finally mellows to become an excellent musician. But just as he readies for a duty-bound life ahead, he encounters Nitya. As Kaveri, Nitya’s mother, and the town’s dashing chief Yugendra personify the social hierarchy, rigid customs and hypocrisy of the day to tear them apart, do Nitya and Prabhas stand a chance? What survives? Love that knows no bounds or traditions that were the very essence of their existence?
Download or read book Given to the Goddess written by Lucinda Ramberg and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-17 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who and what are marriage and sex for? Whose practices and which ways of talking to god can count as religion? Lucinda Ramberg considers these questions based upon two years of ethnographic research on an ongoing South Indian practice of dedication in which girls, and sometimes boys, are married to a goddess. Called devadasis, or jogatis, those dedicated become female and male women who conduct the rites of the goddess outside the walls of her main temple and transact in sex outside the bounds of conjugal matrimony. Marriage to the goddess, as well as the rites that the dedication ceremony authorizes jogatis to perform, have long been seen as illegitimate and criminalized. Kinship with the goddess is productive for the families who dedicate their children, Ramberg argues, and yet it cannot conform to modern conceptions of gender, family, or religion. This nonconformity, she suggests, speaks to the limitations of modern categories, as well as to the possibilities of relations—between and among humans and deities—that exceed such categories.
Download or read book Temple Dancer written by Amy Weintraub and published by Tumamoc Press. This book was released on 2020-05 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TEMPLE DANCER is a spiritual enigma that, like a double helix, entwines the lives of two women from disparate times and cultures. Wendy, a contemporary American artist turned therapist, and Saraswati, an Indian temple dancer in 1938, mirror each other's shame, loss, passion for their art and ultimate triumphs in love.
Download or read book Devadasis of India written by Veenus Jain and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient India has been a land of wisdom, riches and mysteries. Its fabled saints, philosophers, ascetics, its multiplicity of Gods & religions, complex rituals and even snake charmers and magicians never ceased to fascinate the world. Socio-religious tradition of Devadasis or the 'Brides of God' as they were known in India, is one such tradition, shrouded in mystery that attracts attention. It compels a curious mind to take a closer look to learn more and understand its realities. These women are generally referred to by the term devadasi which literally means 'female servant of the deity'. This work bears on many topics such as origin, belief, development, ceremonies, organization, functions, activities, paramours, sexuality, historical survey, statistical analysis, preventive measures and the pathetic stories of devadasis. Because it was conceived as a study of women, culture and religion, it must be borne in mind that all these concerns are dealt with as they arise out of a close attention to the practices of the devadasis.
Download or read book The Undoing Dance written by Srividya Natarajan and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Kalyani dances like light on a river. She comes from a line of famous devadasis, though there is no place for her talent in the Madras of newly independent India. The devadasis, once celebrated as artists, are shunned as prostitutes in a modern nation. In exchange for a comfortable life as the wife of a wealthy arts promoter, Kalyani has to keep her origins hidden and abandon her mother, Rajayi to eke out a living in a decaying old princedom. Kalyani struggles to hold her life together in the absence of her art and her husband's attention. When a Bharatanatyam dancer from the city sets out to record Rajayi s dance repertoire on film, the carefully wrapped-up past threatens to unravel and shatter the fragile peace of the mother and daughter."--Jacket.
Download or read book Women of Pride written by Lakshmi Vishwanathan and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Devadasi, raja dasi or kutcheri dasi - devadasis have acquired a variety of definitions and roles over the years. ?Women of Pride studies, in depth, the devadasi tradition and its transformation into a living cultural phenomenon in the context of Hindu tradition. The book brings into focus the activities and identities of the devadasis and examines the functions and forms of the devadasi tradition. The changing face of the tradition has been authenticated and given a voice by the author by featuring some of the most prominent devadasis of our times. The book also examines the devadasi reform movement in a political, religious, and social context.
Download or read book Shiva s Fire written by Suzanne Fisher Staples and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2001-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In India, a talented dancer sacrifices friends and family for her art.
