A devadasi, literally a servant of the deity, was a woman ritually dedicated, in a ceremony traditionally described as a marriage, to a South Indian Hindu temple's presiding deity, taking on ritual duties that included performing dance and music as part of temple worship. Soneji's study of devadasi memory and modernity documents how this ritual role gave rise to a substantial and rigorous performance tradition, and the classical dance form now known as Bharatanatyam descends directly from repertoire and technique developed and preserved within devadasi lineages over many generations, even though the dance form's public presentation and social respectability have been reshaped considerably since the devadasi institution itself was dismantled.
Devadasi women in some periods and regions also held other temple responsibilities, and the specific privileges, obligations and social standing attached to the role varied significantly by region, temple and period rather than following one single uniform pattern across South India. Some devadasis achieved genuine renown as accomplished performers and were granted land, patronage and considerable social standing within specific temple towns, a level of recognition that complicates any account of the role as uniformly exploitative across every period and region it appears in.