Maid of Dishonour

Arun Ezhuthachan's Sacred Sins reveals the untold stories about the condition of Devadasis in contemporary India

- Smitha Sehgal IS A POET AND LEGAL PROFESSIONAL

IN one of the cases that came up for adjudication before the Madras High Court on the issue of succession, the facts of the case was that the plaintiff/appellant claimed to be the wife of the deceased man and according to her, he died leaving behind the plaintiff/appellant and the children as his heirs to succeed to the properties mentioned in the schedule. The case of the respondents was that the plaintiff was not the wife of the deceased and the children were not born out of lawful wedlock. The court elaborately considered the materials available and observed that the main question that arose for their consideration in the appeal was whether there was a marriage between the plaintiff/appellant and the deceased. The fact that the latter belonged to “Devadasi” community and that there were no witnesses alive to speak about the alleged marriage between them was admitted. In this context, the court considered it relevant to refer to the status of a “devadasi” woman. It drew reference to the Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1951, which defined “Devadasi” as follows: “For the purpose of this section, “devadasi” shall mean any Hindu unmarried female, who is dedicated to a temple.” Consequentially, it was held that it is clear that there was a practice prevalent in this part of the country prior to 1948 dedicating women as “Devadasis” to Hindu deities, idols and temples, and they were incapable of entering into a valid marriage and the factum of invalidity of marriage was a