Slaves or dancers, generally child prostitutes, serving in religiously sanctioned temples; endemic in India until the British decreed ‘‘cult prostitution’’ illegal in 1860. Dan Brown’s allegations (DVC, 309) regarding temple prostitution in ancient Judaism—in the Holy of Holies, no less—ignores the fact that the Israelites sought to stamp out this very activity (part of Baal worship and its associated fertility rituals) in the Promised Land. See Holy of Holies; temple, Solomon’s.