Brihadeeswarar Temple – Devadasi Traditions
When the Brihadisvara Temple dedicated to Shiva was
completed in the capital of the Chola Empire in the early 11th century, its
priests went around the country to seek unmarried pretty girls to make them Devadasis,
which means God’s servants.
They belonged to the temple with the role of dedicating
dances to the main god Shiva, for the purpose of which they had to be virgin
and come from a good family, for they would hold the matrimonial ceremony with
the God after finishing their education.
These selected Devadasis entered this great temple
before puberty, mastered dancing, and entertained the God by singing and
dancing every evening, revering their future husband.
The wall paintings, from the age of the foundation of
the temple, discovered in the 1930 at the Vimana of the Brihadisvara Temple,
depict Apsaras (celestial nymphs) dancing in the heavens with Vishnu, the
preserver of the universe. The famous dance of Bharata Natyam performed by
Devadasis, just as in these well preserved wall paintings, is now danced not
only in the Tamil region but also all over India.