Diksha of devadasi, an ancient tradition

GULBARGA: Chinchansoor which was a famous place for the Diksha of Devadasi in the earlier days has not turned into a holy place, thanks to the changing trend in the society. Earlier, hundreds of teenage girls especially from Dalit communities used to take Diksha of Devadasi on Badami Amavasye Day. Parents who vowed to make their daughters Devadasis used to come to Mapur Tai Temple of Chinchansoor. According to Pandurang Pujari, the girl below 10 years of age used to take Diksha of Devadasi in front of her parents and relatives. The girl would come in a procession to the Mapur Tai temple. All the rituals used to take place under the guidance of a senior Devadasi. At the end, the senior Devadasi used to touch the ‘Mangala Sutra’ to the goddess Mapur Tai and tie it to the new Devadasi. A person according to the girls parents’ choice used to perform the duty of ‘Udi Tumbuvadu’ and he would bear all the expenses of the ritual. After she becomes a Devadasi, if the girl has reached maturity, she should spend a night with the chosen person and if she is minor, she should spend a night with him after she attains maturity. It is up to the girl to be dedicated to that person or to several other or no one at all thereafter, Pandurang said. According to him, over 2,000 girls not only from all districts have taken Diksha of Devadasi in Chinchansoor. Pandurang, who is an active Communist Party (M) activists and is campaigning against the ill practice of Devadasi, says over two decades not even a single case of this ritual has been reported. But there is a strange practice in the Mapur Tai temple even now. The entire village treats Mapur Tai as the goddess of the village. In Chinchansoor there were over 600 houses. On rotation, every week five houses would send their members to perform a seva in the temple.