God's Prostitutes- Devdasi cult

The girl sits inside her home in the busy township of Gokak, waiting for a patron...or should we define it has a client. She wears a pretty red and white flowered salwar. Two little children sleep at her feet. Well, yes, these lives came through the womb of this girl already.

They are then sacred , unable to marry a mere mortal and often destined for a life on the streets.

The mother of two , had herself GIVEN off to Yellamma, just at her puberty and hence tattooed her a "DevDasi". She is technically married to "Yellamma" and do not possess any RIGHTS to marry a mortal.

Drenched in purifying turmeric, shouting praise to The Mother, a village contingency escorts their village Yellamma shrine to the temple.
MOTHER ...WHO????

Now, does that mean that our girl here is a virgin? These kids aint her right?....WRONG.
The society expects her NOT to marry a mortal but to PLEASE the male population by satisfying their sexual needs. She is one of the 40,000 plus "temple Prostitutes" of that area. She is a prostitute whose daily income is less than 300/- and she is the sole earning star of a family of 9, and increasing (pertaining to random sex acts and limited knowledge/provision of contraceptive)

A terrified child, about to be dedicated to the Goddess. Each year, an estimated 3,000 young girls are brought to the festival of Yellama to be dedicated as Devadasis, or `handmaidens of the Goddess. Saundatti, Karnataka, India.

Yet and again the question creeps up ....Is religion a concocted form of suppressing the Female counterpart? Are we promoting Gender apartheid in the name of ritualism?Or ritualism is the emergence of this gender apartheid?

http://orig14.deviantart.net/c658/f/2012/121/0/4/devadasi_by_jasor-d4y6ecs.jpg

Former Devadasis, now project workers for the Devadasi Rehabilitation Project, cuts the dreadlocks of a young Devadasi, symbolizing her rejection of the practice. Saundatti, Karnataka. India

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