The Village Gods Of South India

The worship of the ‘village gods’ is the most ancient form of Indian religion. Participants believed (and some still do), that the world was populated by a multitude of spirits, good and bad, who were the cause of all unusual events - especially of diseases and disasters. This volume constitutes a detailed treatise on this topic, and includes a wealth of information on history, folklore, methods of worship, customs, and more. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in Indian religions, and would make for a great addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: “Leading Features of the Religion”, “Names, Characters, and Functions of the Village Gods”, “The Cult”, “Modes of Worship in the Telugu Country”, “Modes of Worship in the Canarese Country”, “Modes of Worship in the Tamil Country”, “Folklore of the Village Gods of South India”, “Probable Origin of the Worship of Village Gods”, etcetera. This vintage book is being republished in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Excerpt from The Village Gods of South India The material for this account of the village gods of south India has been gathered almost entirely from my own observation and inquiry.I have been able to get little help from books, as this is, I think, the first attempt at dealing systematically with this aspect of Indian religion.It does not pretend to be anything like an exhaustive account of all the various rites and ceremonies observed in the worship of the village deities.The variety of ritual and ceremonial in the different districts of South India is almost endless, and I have not attempted in this book to give an account even of all the various ceremonies that have come within my own knowledge.Perhaps it would be more correct to call the book "An Introduction to the study of the village Gods of south India." I believe, however, that all the main types of this particular form of Hinduism are included in the following pages, and that enough has been said to enable the reader to get a fairly complete idea of its general character and to compare it with similar forms of religion in other parts of the world. I have to acknowledge the kindness of the Editor of The Nineteenth Century and After for allowing me to reprint in Chapters IV, VI, and VII portions of articles contributed by me to that Magazine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS OF THE VILLAGE GODS () The names of village deities are legion. Some of them have an obvious meaning, many are quite unintelligible to the people themselves, and I have often failed to get any clue to their origin, even from native pandits. They differ in almost every district, and often the deities worshipped in one village will be quite unknown in other villages five or six miles off. In Masulipatam on the East Coast, in the Telugu country, the following were given me as the names of the village deities worshipped in the district, vis. Mutyalamma, the pearl goddess (amma or amman is only a female termination); Chinnintamma, the goddess who is head of the house; Challalamma, the goddess presiding over buttermilk; Ghantalamma, the goddess who goes with bells; Yaparamma, the goddess who transacts business; Mamillamma, the goddess who sits under a mango tree; Gangamma, the water goddess, who in this district is the protectress against small-pox. But, at a village about twenty miles from Masulipatam, I found that fifteen different goddesses were worshipped in the neighbourhood, of whom only four were identical with those of Masulipatam. Some were named after the villages from which they had been imported, e.g. Addankamma, the goddess from Addanki, and Pandilamma, the goddess from Pandil; others had names derived from common objects of country life, e.g. Wanamalamma, the goddess of the tope, Balamma, the goddess of the cart, and Sitalamma, the water goddess. In the Ellore district, farther west, the deities worshipped are chiefly Gangamma, who is sometimes called Mahalakshmi (one of the names of Vishnu's wife), and sometimes Chamalamma (another name of Kali, the wife of Siva), and Poleramma, ...

THE purpose of this series of small volumes on the leading forms which religious life has taken in India is to produce really reliable information for the use of all who are seeking the welfare of India. Editor and writers alike desire to work in the spirit of the best modern science, looking only for the truth. But, while doing so and seeking to bring to the interpretation of the systems under review such imagination and sympathy as characterize the best study in the domain of religion to¬day, they believe they are able to shed on their work fresh light drawn from the close religious intercourse which they have each had with the people who live by the faith herein described; and their study of the relevant literature has in every instance been largely supplemented by persistent questioning of those likely to be able to give information. In each case the religion described is brought into relation with Christianity. It is believed that all readers in India at least will recognize the value of this practical method of bringing out the salient features of Indian religious life., )

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.