Wives of the God-King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri

Among the 1,500 devotees of the Hindu temple and cult of Jagannatha at Puri are a handful of women known as "devadasis" or, literally, "female servants of the deity," who are associated with both chastity and concubinage and prostitution. This book focuses on the tension between the purity and impurity of the devadasis, and examines ideas about kingship, power, sexual purity, the role and status of women, and other central concerns of Hindu religious and cultural life that are associated with such rituals.