In India, religious beliefs never separated the body from the spirit. Portraying one as evil and the
other good is a more Western viewpoint. A good look at the ancient temples covered with
embracing figures of Gods and their paramours will show how closely related they believed that
spirituality and sensuality were.. Many clay figurines of dancing girls have been excavated from
the ancient cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. Although it is impossible to determine if these
early dancers were connected to religious rites, it is certainly true that it forms an important part
of religion in India today, and that when the great temples were first built in India, dancing girls
were attached to them as a matter of course. It is impossible to determine if these early dancers
of the Indus valley were involved in any form of temple prostitution. The ninth and tenth
centuries saw the most glorious period of temple architecture, and their beauty was
complimented by the devadasis (lit. "servants of god). These women were held in high regard,
housed in luxurious quarters and granted tax-free lands. Each of them had undergone intensive
training in music and dance, were skilled in languages, and had been 'married' to the temple
deity.

These "temple marriages" were considered lucky for a girl since she would never be considered a
widow. Her presence, therefore, on auspicious occasions such as weddings and births was
regarded as essential. Much like the geisha of later Japan, and the Almeh of Egypt, these women
were highly educated and polished in manner and were able to provide their patrons with
intellectual stimulation, which their wives would have been unable to do.

The institution of dancing girls became an accepted part of Indian society, even after it became a
Muslim society in the Mughal era. Non-temple dancers known generally as tavaifs were not
devadasis, but were sophisticated courtesans and repositories of culture and refinement.
However, the tavaifs were also "married" to trees and flowers in the same sense that the temple
dancers were married to the deity. The institution was so accepted that no respectable wife
would admit to training in singing and dancing because those were needed only by the lower
caste dancing girls. In later times, these dancers would also be known as "Bayaderes" and would
appear in other countries.

In some South Indian Princely states and the Madras High Courts, temple dancers were allowed
to adopt daughters from outside their profession or caste, who were then legally entitled to inherit
from their adopted mother. In Indian society, the birth of a son was welcomed because he could
inherit the family wealth. However, another option was open to the family if there were only
daughters. They could "marry" a daughter to the temple, she would serve for a time as a
devadasi, after which she would return home and assume all the privileges of a son and heir. She
would even be given the important duty of applying the funeral torch to the funeral pyres of her
mother and father. The devadasis were outlawed in the early nineteenth century by the British,
who wished to prevent the abuses of the system such as kidnapping girls to fill the temples.
Nevertheless, these dancers are responsible for preserving much of Indian culture and dance as it
exists today.

Indian dance evolved as a codified dance style, very distinct from what we know as oriental
dance. But these Indian dancers influenced dance in Egypt and in the areas surrounding them.
There is also an obvious relationship between Northern Indian dance and Persian dance, but it is
difficult to say whether Persian influenced Indian or vice versa. The decline of the Mughal
empire and the rise of European power in later centuries saw the gradual decadence of one form
of Indian dance, the Kathak. It degenerated from a purely religious dance to a more voluptuous
dance performed by women of low reputation. It was this debased form of Kathak that the
European adventurers called "nautch" which was a corruption of the Indian word "naach",
meaning dance. The Nautch dancers wore a costume which was bare from the waist with a short
top, which might have inspired later costumes. This infamy hurt even the reputation of the
temple dancers and contributed to their decline.

Curt Sachs considers India the possible source of eastern rhythms, having the oldest history and
one of the most sophisticated rhythmic development. The other possible source considered by
Sachs is the ancient civilization of Sumeria, which influenced the Phoenician and surrounding
cultures. It is probably no accident that Sanskrit, the language of India, is one in which there is
no pre-determined accent upon the long and short syllables; the accents are determined by the
way in which it falls in the sentence. Sanskrit developed in the first thousand years B.C. Each
section of the ancient holy book, the Rigaveda, has a distinct rhythm associated with each section
so that the two aspects, accents and rhythms, are learned as one.

Classical Indian dancers do not use finger cymbals in the manner of belly dancers because their
hands are busy forming the sacred mudras. However, finger cymbals are still used in some folk
dances and by street dancers.

One particularly interesting variation is still performed by the Kamara tribe. Indian finger cymbals, called "manjira" are tied to different parts of the body, and it is generally performed by two or three women who sit on the ground. The dancer's face is veiled, a naked sword is held between the teeth, a decorated pot is balanced on the head, and the manjira are held in each hand. Thus equipped the women sit on the ground and produce a variety of sounds by striking the manjira tied to her body. They do not rise, but shift or slide along the ground, and complex arm movements are performed. This is considered by the Kamara to be a fertility ritual, although it has the same elements as a dance.