This website aims to deepen and enrich understandings devadasis and tawaifs (jointly represented as “courtesans”) within the frameworks of colonialism, nationalism, and the normative construction of gender identity in India.\u00a0 Because\u00a0discourse about the devadasi and tawaif communities is largely produced and disseminated by non-courtesan outsiders, these multifaceted, diverse, intriguing figures have too often been stigmatized and stereotyped as shameful, fallen women or pitiful victims of an uncivilized culture. Even scholarship that seeks to represent them in a positive light can be reductive and one-dimensional. Here, we seek to fill these discursive gaps through an extensive range of literary, cinematic, and cultural texts, including illustrations and photographs. In the future, we hope to provide texts and videos created by or featuring courtesans themselves.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.4″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.22.4″][et_pb_slider _builder_version=”3.22.4″ header_font=”||||||||” header_font_size=”16pt” height=”300px” max_height=”300px” custom_padding=”217px||3px|||” auto=”on” text_shadow_style=”preset3″ text_shadow_color=”#000000″ custom_css_slide_button=”display:none;”][et_pb_slide heading=”Unknown dancers, 1860-70″ _builder_version=”3.22.4″ header_font=”||||||||” header_font_size=”16pt” background_image=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/12\/SLIDER-1-vers-2-Unknown-Nautch-Women-in-India-Around-1860-70-Wikimedia-Commons.jpg” background_position=”top_center”]<\/p>\n
Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_slide][et_pb_slide heading=”A Nautch in the Palace of the Ameer of Sind” _builder_version=”3.22.4″ background_image=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/09\/A_Nautch_in_the_Palace_of_the_Ameer_of_Sind-British-Library.jpg”]<\/p>\n
British Library<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_slide][et_pb_slide heading=”Nautch Girls and Musicians, 1870s” button_text=”Click Here” _builder_version=”3.22.4″ background_image=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/09\/photo1870-location-unknown.jpg”]<\/p>\n
Samuel Bourne\/Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_slide][et_pb_slide heading=”Nautch girls in Hyderabad, 1860″ button_text=”Click Here” _builder_version=”3.22.4″ background_image=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/09\/SLIDER-3-Nautch-Girls-in-Hyderabad-photo-by-Hooper-and-Western-1860s.jpg”]<\/p>\n
Hooper and Western\/Archaeological Survey of India Collection<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_slide][\/et_pb_slider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.4″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.22.4″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/523px-Mah_Laqa_Bai_singing.jpg” _builder_version=”3.22.4″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.22.4″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/Devadassis-or-Bayaderes-Expanded.jpg” _builder_version=”3.22.4″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.22.4″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/John-Gleich-Two-Indian-Nautch-Girls-Cropped.jpg” _builder_version=”3.22.4″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to Courtesans of India! This website aims to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[caption id=\"attachment_249\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"207\"]![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/09\/Devedassis_or_Bayaderes-207x300.jpg\")
\"Devedassis or Bayaderes,\" illustrated by Frederic Shoberl. Obtained from Wikimedia Commons.<\/a><\/span>[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWelcome to Courtesans of India!<\/em>\r\n\r\nThis website aims to deepen and enrich understandings devadasis and tawaifs (jointly represented as \u2018courtesans\u2019) within the frameworks of colonialism, nationalism, and the normative construction of gender identity in India.\u00a0 Because\u00a0discourse about the devadasi and tawaif communities is largely produced and disseminated by non-courtesan outsiders, these multifaceted, diverse, intriguing figures have too often been stigmatized and stereotyped as shameful, fallen women or pitiful victims of uncivilized culture. Even scholarship that seeks to represent them in a positive light can be reductive and one-dimensional. Here, we seek to fill these discursive gaps through an extensive range of literary, cinematic, and cultural texts, including illustrations and photographs. In the future, we hope to provide texts and videos created by or featuring courtesans themselves.\r\n\r\nThis site is under construction. Please be patient while we make some scholarly magic!<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mc_calendar":[],"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-30","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/courtesansofindia\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}