the Belgaum district of the state of
Karnataka. Yellama’s temple is infa-
mous for being a traditional center for
the dedication of devadasis(“[female]
servant of the Lord”), a class of women
kept in temples as singers and dancers
in the service of the temple’s presiding
deityand to whom they were usually
considered to be “married.” In Yellama’s
temple, however, both boys and girls can
be dedicated. Although for the past two
centuries the devadasitradition has car-
ried associations with common prosti-
tution, in earlier times it was far more
common for a devadasi to live with a
single man for her entire life, although
she could not marry him because she
was considered dedicated to the deity.
At times this dedication is done
because of a demand by the goddess
herself, revealed through possession; in
other cases the parents do this, hoping
to gain some concrete benefit, particu-
larly healing from disease. Yellamma is
associated with fireand also with caus-
ing (and potentially curing) skin dis-
eases, which can be seen as symbolic
“burning.”
According to the traditional model,
devadasis held a definite social position
and had special legal rights—they were
entitled to family inheritance and to
perform religious rites, which other
women were not. These special rights
have disappeared with the outlawing of
the devadasi system, done, in part, by
the British, and definitively in post-
Independence India. Although such
dedications still take place, in many
cases they are little more than a cover for
procurement, with the girls being
shipped to brothels in Bombay, Pune,
and other central Indian cities. In most
cases the girls come from extremely
poor families, and the dedication to
Yellamma is a way to avoid paying for a
wedding, a major expense in contempo-
rary Indian society. The dedications take
place on the full moonin the lunar
month of Magh( January–February),
and are reportedly widespread, but
because of secrecy, the laws prohibit-
ing this are rarely enforced. For further
consideration of the devadasi system, in
this case at the Jagannath temple in
Puri, see Frederique Apffel Marglin,
Wives of the God-King, 1985.Yoga
The literal meaning of the word yogais
“the act of joining,” and it is cognate
with the English word “yoke.” Just as the
latter word can serve as either a verb or
a noun—either the act of yoking, or the
thing to which animals are yoked—in
the same way the word yoga can refer
both to the act or process of spiritual
development and also to a specific set of
teachings fostering this development.
Both these meanings can be conveyed
by the word “discipline,” and this is one
of the preferred translations.
There are many specific teachings
styling themselves as yogas. The oldest
one is laid out in the Yoga Sutrasattrib-
uted to the sage Patanjali; this system is
known as ashtanga (“eight-limbed”)
yoga, because of its eight constituent
parts. Other well-known yogas are the
three “paths” described by the god
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, an
important religious text: the yogas of
action (karma), wisdom (jnana), and
devotion (bhakti). Another well-known
yoga is kundalini yoga, the practice of
which is entirely internal, in the alter-
nate physiological system known as the
subtle body. Kundalini yoga stresses
awakening the kundalini, the latent
spiritual power that exists in every per-
son, and through this gaining spiritual
benefits. These make up the main cate-
gories of teachings, but the members of
many particular religious communities
will describe their religious practice
as yoga: Thus there is the surat-shabd-
yoga of the Radha Soamis, the Raja
Yoga of the Brahma Kumaris, or the
Siddha Yoga of the SYDAFoundation.
In such cases the word is used to
identify a particular religious group’s
characteristic teaching, which usually
includes elements from the classical
articulations of yoga.Yoga