Gramadevata
Gramadevata ( Sanskrit ग्रामदेवता gramadevata "village deity" from Grama 'village, village settlement "and Devatā " deity ") is usually the Hinduism associated with Indian folk religion a local protective deity in rural India , belonging to a community. It is often a female deity who is not worshiped by Brahmins. It occurs in different forms, names and properties. They are both protective and mother goddesses of the respective village or an entire region. Most of the time she is especially worshiped by lower castes and female followers. The relationship between village deity and residents is more personal and direct than is the case with the great deities. While these are presented as far away in heavenly spheres and are inaccessible, the goddess lives on earth, in the middle of the village or in trees and is therefore always close and accessible to people. They are not worshiped by Sanskrit texts, but by their own local languages and text genres, for example the famous Mangal-kavyas in Bengali , known from Bengal , who praise the goddess, describe the introduction of her worship and her rise, often also in poems and folk tales. Often these go back to a long oral tradition.
Sometimes Gramadevatas have different names, but similar characteristics; groups of gods can also have the same or similar origin myths, and many differ from the general Hindu deities such as Shiva , Vishnu or Lakshmi in their representation. Others are considered local forms of these Pan-Indian gods, although they do not necessarily have to have much in common with them. It is merely an attempt to make the goddess accessible to curious outsiders and to adapt her to the great goddess and to insert her into an all-encompassing, religious, pan-Hindu universe. This stands for the lively, fruitful exchange between "great and small tradition" that has always existed. Often the smaller deities are adopted as the appearance of a deity in the great traditions and instead of the usual blood sacrifices, which are strictly forbidden in the Brahmanic ritual ( ahimsa ) , are worshiped with substitute sacrifices , such as the heads of coconuts.
There are more female than male deities among the Gramadevatas, especially in Tamil Nadu and Odisha . A male blood sacrifice ( Bali ), beheaded in front of their shrine, is often offered to these goddesses in order to appease them, so that they may let go of their anger and spare the village. The victims are often viewed as the embodiment of the goddess's husband, who has exhausted them and is thus tamed. So they are to be understood as an act of emancipation. In contrast to the great goddesses, they are considered self-confident, dominant, aggressive, independent, wild, moody, impetuous, dangerous, violent, unpredictable, angry, bloodthirsty, indomitable, headstrong, violent, demanding and destructive. They are generally considered unmarried, although some of them have male companions or partners and guards. Especially in the south of India, however, these are predominantly considered to be the guardians and protectors of their shrines who carry out their orders and are strongly subservient, subordinate and clearly inferior to them. Rather, the village is the actual partner of the goddess, with whom she lives in a marriage-like relationship, even is married. Village and goddess form an inseparable unit and are dependent on one another, are bound to one another and maintain one another. At festivals in honor of the local deities, the village goddess is symbolically married to the head and representative of the village.
Each settlement can have one or more Gramadevatas, regardless of their size. There are more village deities than villages in India, which has always been a village culture. Some only belong to a single settlement, others are regional. In contrast to the Pan-Indian gods, the Gramadevatas are part of daily life, and there is a close relationship between the Gramadevatas and their worshipers, while the "orthodox" deities, more related to certain cycles and rhythms of the universe, are often only invoked if necessary. The Gramadevatas are the focus of the residents' attention and are by far the most important mythological figures for them. They are worshiped with far greater intensity than the great "mainstream deities" of Hinduism, who play only a very minor and minor role for the villagers and often there are not even shrines of these deities near the village. Instead, they see the local goddess as "their goddess" whom they love. The focus of worship is not the individual and their wishes, as with the Mahadevis , but always the well-being of the collective, the village as such and its inhabitants, which is close to the heart of the goddess. So it is always about the local and existential needs of the village. Strangers who do not belong to the village are often excluded from the ritual so that they do not benefit from the power of the goddess, which is actually intended for the village and its sphere of influence. Another peculiarity is that in the worship of the village deities, in contrast to that of the great goddesses, in which often only certain castes are involved, the whole village participates, sometimes even Brahmins and Muslims . There is also a certain exchange between the different castes. While the festivals of the Mahadevis are much more individual, the festival culture of the "little deities" seems to be always collective and include the whole village.
Gramadevatas are closely related to illness, sudden death, epidemics, disasters and misfortunes of the village, which are often taken as punishment by the goddess for neglecting her cult or false worship. Often they have an ambivalent nature and are both the cause and the cure for a particular disease from which they can also protect. Closely related to the cult of the village deities are obsession , trance , dreams, visions and ecstasy . Often people, whom the goddess takes possession of, act as a medium and oracle . The special place of the goddess is the village. The origin of the village deity is assumed before the village was formed, and they are often considered to be the mother, mistress, mistress (amma) and founder of the village who gave birth to it. So temporally they precede the village. They are both the origin and the center of the village. It is considered their property and the villagers as their children.
There is a very close connection between the village and the Gramadevata, both of which are interdependent. The goddess demands veneration from the villagers, in return she grants a good harvest, fertility, timely rain, healing, protection from diseases, sudden death and demons. The divinity's sphere of activity and power only includes the village and its inhabitants. As soon as the inhabitants leave the village, they are neither under the influence nor protection of the goddess.
Village deities are often not worshiped in an anthropomorphic form, but rather as a red, round, uncut stone, in a tree, as a water jug or in a small shrine without an image. On festive occasions, the villagers create images of the gods from earth in order to temporarily accommodate and represent them in the temple during this time. Often only the head of the goddess is depicted, which is placed on the ground, while the village as a whole is considered the body of the goddess or she is firmly anchored in the homeland of the village. The villagers and the village itself then live in or on the body of the goddess. Often shrines or symbols of the deity are set up at the edge of the village and entrance to keep strangers, demons, evil spirits and intruders away and to drive them away.
Often Gramadevatas are known to whole regions, such as Manasa in the north of India and Mariyamman in the south. Other village goddesses may be completely unknown outside the village.
At the center of the mythology of the female village deities is often their unjust, humiliating and degrading treatment by a man who has betrayed, betrayed or abandoned them.
See also
literature
- Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson, Michael York (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Routledge, London 2008. ISBN 978-0-7007-1267-0 .
- David R. Kinsley: Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition , University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1988. ISBN 0-5200-6339-2 , village goddesses , Chapter 13, p. 197 -211