Reclaiming sacred art: historicity and colonial representation in The Pagoda Tree

Colonial intervention in South Asia profoundly restructured native frameworks concerning gender and sexuality, along with ceremonial labour, especially those connected with women’s bodies and societal roles. Traditions such as the Devadasi system, formerly rooted in temple fiscal structures and artistic practices, were gradually reframed through colonial and nationalist morals, linking ritual offerings with sexual practices. These reinterpretations generated ongoing discourses that concealed child sexual abuse while stigmatising women as targets of moral judgement and economic exchange within a broader archival and conceptual context. The present study offers a postcolonial feminist reading of Claire Scobie’s The Pagoda Tree. Through the protagonist Maya’s role, the text demonstrates how women’s virtuous and lived performances facilitate forms of unrecognised prominence within restrictive caste and gender hierarchies, while also exposing the constraints of such validation. The analysis shows how colonial visibility increases surveillance rather than safety, affecting creative labour, commodified sexuality and the abusive access to bodies sanctified during childhood. Furthermore, the study also examines issues of authority, perspective and intellectual validation, analysing how Western feminist narratives attempt to recover suppressed women’s histories while still reflecting enduring imperial representations.