Figure

This voluptuously carved figure, elaborately dressed with an ornate headers and magnificent coiffure, is a splendid representation of devadasi ('slave of god'), the professional caste of temple servants who, alongside the brahmin priests, attended to the needs of the deity. The devadasi attended to the lamps and sang celebratory songs. They provided entertainment for the deity by dancing and singing auspicious and laudatory songs (stotra) in praise of god. When a portable image was taken on daily procession within the temple enclosure, they accompanied singing devotional songs. At the bedchamber puja, performed around 10 p.m., they sang lullabies as the god was lulled to sleep. Throughout these ceremonies, the deities were treated like royalty, and celebrated in the eulogising language normally reserved for kings.