The Temple as the First Conservatory
Before the princely court, before the sabha, before the music school, there was the temple. The devadasi system formalised what had existed informally for centuries: the temple sustained the artist, and the artist sustained the deity. A dancer attached to a major Shaiva or Vaishnava shrine in the Chola or Vijayanagara period was not a peripheral figure. She was a permanent employee of the institution, listed in copper-plate inscriptions alongside priests and accountants. Her salary came from the temple's landholdings. Her training began in childhood and was overseen by the nattuvanar, the hereditary master who held the choreographic knowledge of the lineage.
