Through the use of epigraphical evidence, Leslie C. Orr brings into focus the activities and identities of the temple women (devadasis) of medieval South India. This book shows how temple women's initiative and economic autonomy involved them in medieval temple politics and allowed them to establish themselves in roles with particular social and religious meanings. This study suggests new ways of understanding the character of the temple woman and, more generally, of the roles of women in Indian religion and society.

Leslie C. Orr's profile page

Leslie C. Orr is at Concordia University, Quebec.

"This work operates at the highest levels of scholarship and regularly yields gems of insight on the problems of South Indian historiography. . . . The true value of this book lies not in historicism or comparison but in its portrait of women's agency within a 'broader context of relationships' (35) during their own time."--Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Orr's account is balanced: she does not hesitate to point out where temple women's status is distinctive, wehre it overlaps with royal women and temple men, where the status of temple women seems to be high, and where it seems to be low. Her nuanced treatment is very successful in proving that women had a recognized and ongoing presence in the temple culture that defined the medieval period."--The Journal of Religion