devadasi

The Dance of Freedom

Chitra Ahanthem

An intergenerational story about Devadasis

The Himalayan Quest

Devapriya Roy

The spiritual picaresque of a seeker

If women dancers faced the ‘devadasi stigma’, men didn’t have it easy either in a field where there was no readymade space for them. The story of VP Dhananjayan’s struggle to break away from Kalakshetra and establish himself as a solo male Bharata Natyam dancer

The Last Great Devadasi

Gitanjali Kolanad

Legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Balasaraswati’s story, as told by her son-in-law, is pleasant enough but it glosses over the debate at the heart of the art form—the abuse inherent in the devadasi system