Our Manifesto

For over a century, the narrative surrounding South Indian performing arts has been dominated by a myth of “salvation”—a historic appropriation that erased the primary creators, custodians, and teachers of these traditions.

The hereditary women (temple and court artists) were not mere figures of the past to be cataloged or “rehabiliated.” They were—and remain—the foundational architects of the rhythm, pedagogy, and somatic knowledge that sustain these art forms today.

Hereditary Histories exists to disrupt the institutional silence.

• We reject the myth of purification: The reform movements of the 20th century did not rescue dance; they dismantled the socio-economic sovereignty of hereditary families, pushing their living practice into the margins of academic and elite institutions.
• We honor somatic archives: Beyond written records and state catalogs, we look at oral histories, embodied memory, pedagogical labor, and the quiet resilience of hereditary artists who continued to teach, play, and embody their art against systemic stigma.
• We re-center the lineage: This space is dedicated to restoring names, voices, and historical agency to the women and musicians whose labor built the foundations upon which modern academies now stand.

This project is an independent research platform, building the groundwork for a collaborative, community-driven archive. It is an invitation to look closely at the gaps in history, to question who holds the stage, and to honor those who held the art.

A Note on Community Terminology (Isai Vellalar)

I adopt the term Isai Vellalar with full historical consciousness of its consolidation during 20th-century social reform movements, such as the Self-Respect Movement/DK. While acknowledging its specific mid-century socio-political genesis, I use it alongside regional lineage designations to honor contemporary community self-representation. In this archive, terminology is treated not as a rigid classification, but as an evolving ethical practice open to adaptation in continuous alignment with archival precision and the living perspectives of hereditary descendants.

Simultaneously, Hereditary Histories deliberately refrains from the uncritical application of colonial umbrella labels—most notably the term Devadasi—which flattened diverse socio-artistic institutions and loaded them with Victorian moral stigma.