Devadasis was a religious practice in some parts of southern India, in which women were married to a deity or temple. In the later period, the illegitimate sexual exploitation of the devadasis became a norm in some part of the country.Devadasi system is a religious practice in parts of southern India, including Andhra Pradesh, whereby parents marry a daughter to a deity or a temple.The marriage usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty and requires the girl to become a prostitute for upper-caste community members. Such girls are known as jogini. They are forbidden to enter into a real marriage.Factors like religious beliefs, caste system, male domination and economic stress have been recognized as the stimulants behind the perpetuation of this phenomenon.
         The beginning could be perhaps mapped out in the inscription found in temples. "The word Emperumandiyar which was used in the sense of Vaishnavas before 966 A.D. got the meaning of dancing girls, attached to Vishnu temples, in inscriptions of about 1230-1240 A.D. in the time of Raja Raya III. In Maharashtra, they are called 'Devadasis' meaning female servants of God'. It is viewed that the "devadasis" are the Buddhist nuns who were degraded to the level of prostitutes after the temples were taken over by the Brahmins during the times of their resurgence after the fall of Buddhism. Poor, low-caste girls, initially sold at private auctions, were later dedicated to the temples. They were then initiated into prostitution.
According to Indian scholar Jogan Shankar, the following are the reasons which played a major role in supplanting the system with firm roots:
1. as a substitute for human sacrifice.
2. as a rite to ensure the fertility of the land and the increase of human being and animal

population.
3. as a part of phallic worship which existed in India from early Dravidian times.
4. sprang from the custom of providing sexual hospitality for strangers.
5. licentious worship offered by a people, subservient to a degraded and vested interests    of priestly Class.
6. And lastly, to create custom in order to exploit lower caste people in India by upper  
castes and classes.