Devadasi and the happy dances

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Posted by Catherine Cartwright-Jones on July 2, 2003 at 14:37:32:

In reply to: Re: Devadasi resources posted by Beth on July 2, 2003 at 10:32:01:

I've read references and seen depictions of precisely how awful wives
felt when their husbands went to devadasis. (actually those references
are where I get some of my most crucial info on when it was henna and
when it was not!) Perhaps some women were glad to get the damn bull
out of the pasture so he'd stop pestering them (women who had little
emotional attachment to their husband), but others were hurt deeply
and hated the devadasi with all their heart ... though they could
neither buck the husband-is-in-charge-end-of-story society, nor could
they risk bucking the "devadasi may be magical and dangerous" problem.
It was a difficult situation.

One of the things I've been thinking about is the "excape valve"
function of devadasi ... Some arranged marriages are great and some
are miserable, and some are ... good sometimes and crappy sometimes.
I've looked at the pictures of acrobatic sex, and wondered if the men
had fantasies that went beyond anything their wife could manage (some
of these things fall into the you've got to be kidding category) and
the highly trained acrobatic dancers could have managed while people
with non-hyperextensible joints simply cannot.... and perhaps this is
exactly comparable to men's present fascination with pole tricks and
suchlike. Men fantasize. Heck, women fantasize (thank god for videos
and hitachi magic wands) (makes things a damn sight less complicated
in the morning). Many societies acknowledge that if there are itches
that absolutely have to be scratched .... try to find a way to
regulate and tax the backscratchers and confine them in some
geographic location that is accessible (but not near the children).


Other than that ... my happy dance for today is to have found slam
dunk no arguement possible it's there any blind fool can see it .... 6
depictions of women in frescos, pre 1550 BCE Minoan with henna on the
their fingernails and soles! That (and what they're doing) cooroborate
all my other sources that demonstrate that the Usko Mediterranean
culture was using henna specifically in the context of young women in
the springtime at a bridal-sorta fertility festival. Well ... that
sort of thing makes me happy anyway......



and another happy dance ... some of the early Qajar paintings of women
that have orange dip henna hands (as if you took fairly crappy henna
and slathered it on for an hour at most) seem to be painted OVER
hands with darkened henna patterns! I dug for other references, and
there was a ferocious Europeaniztion that kicked in especially in the
upper classes and visual arts in the mid 1800's that might have made
people go back and ask for the older patterned hands to be redone more
"European" or according the new fashion. Mid 1800's climate would
have made for crappy henna crops, too.

last happy dance ... there was a lady acrobat in the Persian court in
about 1830 who's best trick was to balance upside down on knifepoint
.. . and she had the MOST BEAUTIFUL above eyebrow harquus I've ever
seen! Sorry guys I just have my little laptop and crappy internet
access ... so I'll have to show you later .......

 

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