Village deities of South India
[1] These deities have been linked back to common Indus Valley civilisation imagery, and are hypothesised to represent the prevailing Dravidian folk religion at the time.
Whereas the male deities such as Ayyanar, Karuppasamy, Muniswara, Pothuraju are the deceased warriors who are worshipped as guardians of villages before the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the mother goddesses were represented as small terracotta figures and the male deities were represented as stones and horse totems.
Other popular goddesses include Pochamma in Telugu regions and Yellamma in northern Karnataka and western Telangana.
[3] Some of these deities originated with tribal communities and became worshipped by wider society., such as Kondalamma in the hills of East Godavari district.
In Tamil Nadu, there are a host of other male deities, such as Karuppusami, who are either attendants to Ayyanar or guardians for the main goddess.
Kannaki Amman is Kannagi from the Silappadikaram, whose husband was unjustly killed by the Pandyan king, is another widely-worshipped deity of this category.
The Machani Amman temple at Pollachi was built to worship a young girl who was killed by a Kongu king for unknowingly eating a mango from his garden.
For example, there are many temples dedicated to Draupadiamman (Panchali) and Dharmaraja (Yudhishthira) in northern Tamil Nadu, a tradition especially prominent among the Vanniyar community.
The more malevolent deities are usually given more space on the village outskirts, nearer to settlements variously known as keri, palli or cheri in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil respectively.
[2] In Tamil Nadu, the guardian god is often given form as a fierce warrior, holding an aruval or other weapon, with attendants surrounding him.
In Telugu and Kannada regions, the goddess is often given anthropomorphic form as a terracotta statue only during a temple festival, and is then returned to her aniconic shape.
"bow song"), extolling the deeds of great heroes who had been deified, and udukkai pattu, legends done to the sound of percussion.
At other times, however, anyone can walk up to the deity and make a sacrifice to them, potentially to ease some personal trouble such as a sick child or obtaining bad luck.
In southern Tamil Nadu, for instance, most deity festivals take place throughout the dry summer months before the monsoon.
Others who are not involved in the setting up of the festival are encouraged to bring various offerings including goats and fowls for sacrifice.
These boundaries are subject to change depending on socioeconomic circumstances of residents of various areas in the village.
Two of the elders carry ghata, pots decorated with various patterns and topped with an oil lamp.
The next morning is the anupu or anupukam (send-off), where a special anthropomorphic image made of either wood or stone is offered.
The image consists of a head like a big mask with a fierce face and lion's teeth projecting downwards outside the mouth.
Another story, from Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh, is about Gangamma, the daughter of a Brahmin who unknowingly married a Dalit.
This Dalit had claimed Brahmin status in order to learn the Vedas from Gangamma's father but was unknowingly exposed by his mother who had visited.
This often happens when a Vedic goddess (some form of Kali, Durga or Parvati usually) gains significant popularity and then all the gramadevatas are conflated with her.
However she is also worshipped as a Neem tree in the temple courtyard and animal sacrifice is occasionally performed to her, showing her origin as a village deity.
[2] These transitions are primarily driven by a desire to assimilate into the dominant culture due to increased affluence.
Furthermore, when villages become absorbed by a city, their deities lose their agricultural significance, and so Vedic forms of worship are adopted.
The form of the deity is also dependent on the primary adherents: for instance Sri Durgalamma in Visakhapatnam has been Sanskritised: Brahmin priests preside, animal sacrifices are not done inside the temple, and she is depicted with Vedic iconography, and is regarded as a peaceful avatara of Lakshmi.
This is partly because the majority of devotees are middle-class housewives, to whom the beautiful consort of Vishnu is more palatable to worship than fearsome-looking Durga.
For instance, with the syncretism of Ayyappan with mainstream Vaishnavism and Shaivism elevated him as an extremely popular deity beyond his native Kerala.
For example, the Mariamman temples of Samayapuram, Punnainallur, and Vazhangaiman in Tamil Nadu attract a large number of devotees.
The devotees of the folk tradition have begun to follow some customs and habits of higher castes in order to raise their social status, integrating them with the mainstream faith.
