Her Story, Her Stage: Reimagining the Devadasi Legacy

Miss Nagarathnamma (1878-1952) of Bangalore was among the earliest female artists of India with a devadasi background, who was recorded on the very first recording session conducted by The Gramophone Company Ltd., in 1904-05, in Madras.In addition to her celebrated status as a 'Gramophone Artist' in the formative period of the Indian sound recording industry, Nagarathnamma's significance further lies profoundly in her intrepid stance against the 'hypocritical self-righteous stand of the purists and self-appointed custodians of high culture'.Her translation of Radhika Santawanamu (The Appeasement of Radhika), an eighteenth-century Telugu literary work authored by the courtesan Muddupalani, into Kannada was perhaps a challenge against the 'purists' and the moral purification drive of colonial modernity that desired to obliterate the voices of women, particularly those from the devadasi tradition.By countering their eradication from historical and artistic narratives, Nagarathnamma's voice transcended the musical sphere to become a power of resistance against the cultural marginalisation of courtesans.In colonial India, where female sexuality was never to be explored or talked about beyond the conjugal relationship, the translation and republication of Radhika Santawanamu, banned later on, immediately triggered the wrath of the contemporary patriarchal gaze of the social reformers.The fact that the government withdrew the ban on the work after the independence of India, leading to its rightful restoration and publication in 1952, indicates the layered nature of the colonial administration, especially regarding the question of women within the broader socio-cultural fabric of India.