The Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna promotes research on the music of minorities and marginalised social groups worldwide. At the Long Night of Research 2026, it hosts a lecture demonstration on the songs and dances of the devadāsīs (Sanskrit: “female servants of deities”) of Bengal, given by Dr Bisakha Goswami, Assistant Professor of Musicology at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata and author of the book "Women in the Field of Music: A Study of Bengal" (2014).

The devadāsīs, an abandoned religious and social tradition that originated in the 9th or 10th century AD, were historically dedicated to the service of patron gods and goddesses in temples across eastern and southern India, where they worshipped deities by fanning their central image, offering lights, and performing devotional songs and dances.

The lecture demonstration will include practical demonstrations of these songs and dances by Dr Goswami, accompanied on the Indian string instrument sitār by Dr Christian Poske, Research Fellow at the MMRC, and on the tablā by Dr Gerhard Rosner, lecturer in Indian classical music at the University of Vienna.