Street Gods of South India
Travel across the South India, we are bound to encounter different small and very small as well as many open deities on the roadside. Though most of us tend to ignore them or just have look at them at move ahead, there are lots of stories and rituals attached to most of these Gods and Goddesses. They are generally Goddesses who have originated due to the need of the human. They are mostly folk Gods who are worshipped by people belonging to all walks of life. These Gods and Goddesses are saviours from natural calamities and protectors of villages. This Street Gods new series will look into various lesser known street Gods of south India from Ayyanars in Tirunalvelli district in Tamil Nadu to Thalupulamma Thali in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, this series will give a broad insight into the origins, the rituals and beliefs associated with these lesser known Gods and Goddesses.
From the time that man started leading a civilized life , he realized that there is some power which was outside him and which was much greater than him that controls all his affairs. So a concept of God arose and the Vedas emphasized that. But unfortunately the Veda educated guru’s teachings didn’t reach the common people. They needed a God they could communicate too. These people needed to communicate to the God without the learned experts in the middle to pray for protection from calamities, epidemics. This started a parallel system of Gods in India which was outside the Agamas and which were worshipped by the general people in their own way.
This type of believes are found in almost all villages throughout India, Malaysia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in particular. They are known as “Kaval Deivam” or guardian spirits in Tamil and “Kula Daivam” or Local Village Gods.
And majority of these Gods are the people who were great men and women who sacrificed themselves for the sake of their families and villages like Ayyanar based on the concept of son of Shiva and Vishnu , Koothandar , Sudalai Madan, Angala Parameshwari, Yellamma , Renuka Mysamma, Isakki Amman, Kali Amman, Mari Amman etc were modified characters whom these simple people admired and worshipped as Gods. The local kings and rich people supported their idea and built temples for these Gods respecting the people’s faith. They realized that these Gods were powerful and would fulfill all their wishes. In most of these temples worship was done by people who were not Brahmins and not following the Agama system of worship.
Indian villages are primarily agriculture based and agriculture across the world is usually associated to female element. Hence female deities are the usual norm as grama-devatha. Also the fickle and fiery temperament of the village deity calls for feminine form for the deity. Male village deities, when present, are often worshipped in the form of subordinate to the goddess, mostly for the protection of the village from outside forces.
The Yellamma, Mysamma, Renukamma worshipped in many villages is actually a mile stone which demarcated the boundaries of two villages. In olden days, people when they travel from one village to another village started relaxing near these stones and in due course started praying to them for safe journey. Thus, slowly these milestones attained the position of village gods and goddesses.
Villagers offered these Gods what they ate and it was non vegetarian items most of the time. Animals were slaughtered for food in the temple premises and food they liked was prepared and great feasts were held. Most of these deities were surrounded by terra cota or clay idols of fierce animals and Birds as well as the weapons of these deities driven on the mud in front of them. Each of these Gods also had priests appointed to serve them from certain specific families. Most of them also had Samiyadis who would go in to trance in front of these deities and reply to the queries of the devotees of Gods. The opinions of these Gods were made known to the people in general by the God/Goddess entering a lady and making her to tell them about them.
Each of these Gods had stories associated with them, form of worship and festivities all lead by these simple devotees. Most of the villages had a God to guard them outside the village below some trees. The looks of these Gods were most often terrifying.. Some of the villages also had a God inside their village. All the important decision of these families were taken in front of their Gods. All important ceremonies were conducted before these Gods. Wherever a villager went he carried mud from his village temple and established a temple of his God wherever he lived. The origins of different deities range from incarnations of the Brahman Gods to the regular human spirits from untimely deaths of a villager. The more common stories of the deity with mortal origin is of injustice done to a woman whose wrath then unleashes her power and takes on a Goddess form. The worship then might serve a reminder to stick to ethical standards and strike the fear of being punished otherwise.
The worship pattern is non-vedic through Folk tale, Folk Song and Folk arts (Villupattu, Karakattam, Koothhu, etc.). The local priest might offer flowers or Veeputhi (holy ash) or Holy flowers to the worshipers and may play the oracle role for shamanism.
Categories and folklore
The village deities in Tamil Nadu or Malaysia have interesting stories behind them. Mainly these village gods come under one of the three categories:
1) Ayyannar (Protector Boundaries)
2) Maariamman ( Protector of Welbeing of Village )
3) Kali ( Protector of Graveyard )
Protector of Well-Being of Village
Amman was considered as the causative force for cholera. Mari was considered as a causative force for smallpox, chicken pox, mumps and measles (Maari in Tamil means rain. Since the rainfall cooled the otherwise hot area and protected people from summer sicknesses like viral infections, people started worshiping the rain goddess as Maari Amman) Periyachi Amman: Guardian of children and mothers
Sri Pada Muthu Swami at Inam Karisal Kulam.There are other various Natural energy worship in the form of Muthaaramman, Muthalamman, Pachai Thanni Amman, Pachaiyamman, Pal Pazhakkari amman, Solai amman.
The third category contains certain less spoken characters in the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. For example, there are many temples dedicated to Draupadi (Panchali) and Dharmaraja (Yudhishthira) in the Northern parts of Tamil Nadu. Temples dedicated Gandhari (mother of the Kauravas), Kunti (mother of Pandavas) and Aravan (the son of Arjuna and the serpent princess Ulupi) are found in Tamil Nadu, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Burma.
Kaval Deivams or Kuladeivams – Are much of folklore customary believes and that took much of Hindu Vedic pattern. It is very much of village believe system, with villages all turning into suburbans and such believe must be migrated into Hindu proper worshiping and follow agamic requirement. This folklore deities are to be found predominantly among Tamil, Telugus and generally the South Indians. Especially those in Malaysia and Singapore follows the custom as agamic or Hindu ritual strictly.
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