The Devadasis of Puri’s Jagannath Temple were not prostitutes — they were sacred tantric practitioners whose ritual dance sustained the temple’s cosmic power. Dr. Frederique Apfel-Marglin and Dr. Shreya Patnaik present the definitive scholarly account of a millenarian tradition lost forever.
Dr. Apfel-Marglin, who conducted pioneering fieldwork from 1975, explains how the Maharis’ dance during the meal-offering ritual was not ceremonial decoration but a metaphysical necessity — their absence, according to the temple priests themselves, rendered the rituals inefficacious. Colonial legislation that criminalised Devadasis as “religious prostitutes” destroyed what centuries of Islamic invasions had failed to erase.
The session traces the tradition’s final extinction by 2021, situates its ritual role within the larger Jagannath cosmology — Puri as Sri Kshetra, the living field of Lakshmi — and asks urgent questions about what India loses when sacred female agency is systematically stigmatised rather than understood.

About the Speakers:
Frédérique Apffel-Marglin is a French-American anthropologist and Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Smith College. Trained in Odissi dance, widely known for her groundbreaking research on the Devadasi traditions of Odisha, she conducted extensive fieldwork. She later documented it in her book ‘Wives of the God-King’. She has authored and edited numerous influential works.
Shriya Patnaik is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on Odisha’s cultural history, women’s issues, minority rights, and indigenous traditions. Her research engages with questions of gender, ritual culture, social justice, and the interpretation of regional traditions.