Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction: On Historical, Social, and Aesthetic Borderlands 1
5. 1. Producing Dance in Colonial Tanjore 27
6. 2. Whatever Happened to the South Indian Nautch? Toward a Cultural History of Salon Dance in Madras 70
7. 3. Subterfuges of “Respectable” Citizenship: Marriage and Masculinity in the Discourse of Devadāsī Reform 112
8. 4. Historical Traces and Unfi nished Subjectivity: Remembering Devadāsī Dance at Viralimalai 161
9. 5. Performing Untenable Pasts: Aesthetics and Selfhood in Coastal Andhra Pradesh 189
10. Coda: Gesturing to Devada¯sı¯ Pasts in Today’s Chennai 222
11. Appendix 1: Selected Documents from the Files of Muthulakshmi Reddy 227
12. Appendix 2: The Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act of 1947 235
13. Notes 237
14. References 271
15. Index 297