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{{Short description|Indian conjoined twins}}

[[File:OrissaTwins1894.jpg|thumb|The Orissa Twins, from an 1894 publication.]]
[[File:OrissaTwinsPosterParis.jpg|thumb|A poster publicizing the Orissa Twins' appearance at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, about 1900.]]
[[File:The Library of Congress - Dr. Doyen separating Hindoo twins (LOC) (pd).jpg|thumb|Dr Doyden separating the twins]]
[[File:Radica & Doodica, Joint Hindoo twins after operation LCCN2014691062.jpg|thumb|Radica & Doodica, after their separation in February 1902 LCCN2014691062]]
'''Radhika and Dudhika Nayak''' (born 1888; Dudhika died on February 16, 1902; Radhika died in November 1903) were Indian [[conjoined twins|conjoined twin]] sisters. They toured Europe and North America as "the Orissa Twins", sideshow performers with the [[Barnum and Bailey Circus]]. (Their names were spelled various ways in reports, over time and across languages.)

==Early life==
Radhika and Dudhika were born in the [[Dhenkanal district]] of [[Odisha]], probably in [[Huapada]], the children of Khestra Nayak.<ref name="Gyan">Gyan Ranjan Mohapatra, [https://www.dailypioneer.com/2016/state-editions/famous-orissa-twins-little-known-in-state.html "Famous 'Orissa Twins' Little Known in State"] ''The Pioneer'' (January 4, 2016).</ref><ref name="Pradhan">Ashok Pradhan, "Attempt was made to separate Odia conjoined twins in 1902: Researcher" ''Times of India'' (February 4, 2017).</ref> They were taken into the care of a local religious community as infants.<ref>[https://www.indiawhispers.com/2017/02/05/orissas-first-international-performers-twin-sisters-radhika-doodika/ "Orissa's First International Performers: Twin Sisters Radhika and Doodika"] ''India Whispers'' (February 5, 2017).</ref>

==Sideshow career==
The girls were removed from the ''[[sadhu|sadhus']]'' care by an English promoter called Captain Coleman, and they sailed for Europe with him in 1892.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JKMzAQAAMAAJ&dq=Orissa%20Twins&pg=PA275#v=onepage&q=Orissa%20Twins&f=false "Conjoined Twins"] ''Scientific American'' (October 29, 1892): 275.</ref> Their first public exhibition outside of India was at the [[Royal Aquarium]] in London. In 1893 they traveled to the United States, where they were displayed at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago that year. Also in 1893, the ''[[British Medical Journal]]'' published a report about their physical state, finding them "free from all element of repulsiveness" and "apparently perfect in every respect, except that from the ensiform cartilage to the umbilicus they are united together."<ref>[https://www.bmj.com/content/1/1692/1176 "The Orissa Twin Sisters"] ''British Medical Journal'' 1(June 1893): 1176.</ref> Another medical journal reported that "the children seldom quarrel".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ3NAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA33&ots=VcIlhiD0B8&dq=Orissa%20Twins&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q=Orissa%20Twins&f=false "The Orissa Twins"] ''The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health'' (January 1894): 33.</ref> After their Chicago appearance, the Orissa Twins toured extensively with the Barnum and Bailey Circus sideshow.<ref name="Gyan" /> They were said to speak English, French, and German, and to have a Scottish governess.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25357507/orissa_twins_1897/ "The Orissa Twins"] ''Kansas City Journal'' (October 10, 1897): 16. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref>

==Separation and deaths==
The twins had been traveling for almost a decade when Dudhika was found to have [[tuberculosis]] in 1902. A prominent French doctor, [[Eugène-Louis Doyen]], offered to perform a surgical separation in hopes of saving Radhika's health. The surgery was filmed (as other procedures by Doyen had been). There was concern afterward that the surgeon had been distracted or hasty, because of the cameras and his ambition for good publicity. "The practice of medical heroics on Radica and Doodica's bodies," comments a recent historian, "can be understood as the spectacularization of medical superiority."<ref>Jill A. Sullivan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YZJECgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT79&ots=VU-O-YC15j&dq=Orissa%20Twins&pg=PT79#v=onepage&q=Orissa%20Twins&f=false ''Popular Exhibitions, Science and Showmanship, 1840–1910''] (Routledge 2015). {{ISBN|9781317321125}}</ref>

Dudhika Nayak died soon after of the surgery, aged about 14 years, from [[peritonitis]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=X1QKAQAAMAAJ&dq=Orissa%20Twins&pg=PA1244#v=onepage&q=Orissa%20Twins&f=false "The Recent Operation on the Xiphopagous Twins"] ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' (May 10, 1902): 1214-1215.</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25361776/dudhika_1902/ "One of the Twins Dead"] ''Topeka Daily Herald'' (February 17, 1902): 5. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref> Radhika Nayak recovered well, and was not told of her sister's death;<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25361601/radica_1902/ "Radica is Getting Well"] ''Baltimore Sun'' (February 23, 1902): 10. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref> Radhika was baptized as Marie Marguerite, and learned needlework, during her stay in a Paris sanitorium.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25361477/radhika_1902/ "Radica Still Living"] ''Buffalo Courier'' (July 27, 1902): 15. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref> She died in 1903, aged about 15 years, from tuberculosis.<ref name="Gyan" /><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25362132/radica_1903/ "Consumption Takes Twins"] ''Topeka Daily Herald'' (June 9, 1903): 5. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref>

After their separation, the film of the procedure made its way into theatres, first for medical professionals, but eventually to a wider audience. There was "a storm of disgust" when the film was exhibited in Vienna in 1903.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25362237/orissa_twins_1903/ "Horrors of the Cinematograph"] ''Watertown News'' (September 23, 1903): 8. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref> Doyen himself tried to stop the exhibition of the films in sideshows in 1904.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25363880/orissa_twins_1904/ "Surgical Photography"] ''Wyoming Democrat'' (July 1, 1904): 4. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref>

==Legacy==
In 2017, conjoined twin boys Jaga and Kalia Kanhar, also from Odisha, were successfully separated by surgery in [[New Delhi]]. Radhika and Dudhika Nayak were recalled in some articles about the event.<ref name="Pradhan" /><ref>Anil Dhir, [https://www.dailypioneer.com/2017/state-editions/the-other-famous-conjoined-orissa-twins.html "The other famous conjoined 'Orissa Twins'"] ''The Pioneer'' (October 27, 2017).</ref><ref>Rashmi Rekha Das, [http://www.orissapost.com/twin-tales/ "Twin Tales"] ''Orissa Post'' (November 11, 2017).</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/88824/john-friis-the-orissa-twins-radica-doodica-prins-colibri-danish-about-1900/ "The Orissa Twins. Radica, Doodica & Prins Colibri"] a Danish cabinet card in the collection of the [[J. Paul Getty Museum]].

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nayak, Radhika and Doodika}}

[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1902 deaths]]
[[Category:1903 deaths]]
[[Category:Conjoined twins]]
[[Category:Sideshow performers]]

Radhika and Dudhika Nayak - Revision history

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