Note 30 — D
Reading edition
(d) The plaintiff, a Dēva-dāsi, complained that, when she brought offerings according to custom and placed them before the God at a certain festival, and asked the Archakas (officiating priests) to present the offerings to the God, burn incense, and then distribute them, they refused to take the offerings on the ground that the Dēva-dāsi had gone to a Kōmati’s house to dance. She claimed damages, Rs. 10, for the rejected offerings, and Rs. 40 for loss of honour, and a perpetual injunction to allow her to perform the mantapa hadi (sacrifice) at the Chittrai Vasanta festival. The priests pleaded that the dancing-girl had, for her bad conduct in having danced at a Kōmati’s house, and subsequently refused to expiate the deed by drinking panchagavyan (five products of the cow) according to the shastras, been expelled both from her caste and from the temple.30