Gramadevata

[2][3] Of diverse origins, gramadevatas are regarded to protect the inhabitants of their villages from bandits, epidemics, and natural disasters when propitiated, failing which they are believed to cause these afflictions.

[8]Traditional The earliest appearance of the "Mother Goddess" found in South Asia is in Mehrgarh in the form of female terracotta figurines dating to the 4th millennium BCE.

Evidence of continued veneration of a female village deity comes from a terracotta fragment Chandraketugarh from what is now eastern West Bengal dating to the 1st century BCE.

[10][11] Gramadevatas are believed to serve as the protectors of fields and the general countryside, preventing plagues, famines, pestilence, war, as well as natural disasters.

[12] These deities, predominantly goddesses, possess both benevolent and malevolent features, to mark their roles as gentle to supplicants, and also fierce to wrongdoers.

[13] Animal sacrifices and blood are often served as offerings to placate these goddesses by their devotees, including chickens, goats, and occasionally buffaloes, traditionally requiring them to be male.

[14][15] While various gramadevatas possess discrete worlds and forms of worship from mainstream Hinduism, others have been syncretised as members of the greater pantheon of Hindu deities.