From Tribal Deities to Village Deities
In this process the so called tribes of the past started living in the settled villages and the tribal deities maintained as before became Hinduised. Even though the local peasants/ Hindus propitiated them in fear of their power, the rites and rituals remained the same, and they were to be propitiated by the tribal priests or non-Brahmin priests.
Thus, it is accepted that most of the Grama Devati6 or village tutelary deities were originally tribal deities. Bishop Whitehead (1921) after his investigation of the village deities in South India remarked (Dash 1997: 839):1 The village deities symbolise the village life and are related not to the great world forces, but to such simple facts as cholera, small pox, cattle disease, etc.
2 The village deities with very few exceptions are females and are almost universally worshipped with animal sacrifices.
3 The priests are not Brahmins, but are drawn from all other castes.
4 In many village shrines, a deity is simply a rough stone platform under a tree as in case of the Sarna of Kudukh/Kurukh, Zahira/Zaher of the Santals, Kudmi, etc.
5 In some villages the goddess is represented simply by a stone pillar or by a brass pot filled with water.
Among the tribes of Odisha, the tradition of Grama Devati is very popular and greatly valued. Even the local caste people living amidst tribal population worship tribal goddesses, offer sacrifices, and consider the tribal priests and deities as very powerful entities. The Sarna Budhi among the Oram (spelt Oraon in Jharkhand), Jahira Era among the Santals and Mundas, Kalapat, Balanipata and Thakurani Maa among the Bhuyans, and Barada Devi7 among the Khonds8 are some of the mother goddesses in tribal Odisha9. It is to be mentioned that a number of goddesses having tribal origin in Odisha at present are propitiated in the name of Hindu Goddesses. A very interesting account on the tribal origin of Grama Devati has been presented by Jagannath Dash (1997:851) with reference to Jamini Mohan Das.
This worship of the malevolent spirit through the medium of shapeless stone is an off shoot of the fetishism10 of the aborigines. It still includes, though to a restricted extent, the sacrifice of an animal which is one of the most important characteristic features of aboriginal worship. The restriction of the priestly function to the sudra caste11 is another link in the chain of circumstances which indicate the tribal origin of this form of worship. When fitted to the above theoretical analysis, Stambheswari appears to have had been originally an aboriginal goddess12 worshipped by the tribes of the hinterland Odisha either as a village deity or the tutelary deity of some tribal chiefdom. In due course she, like many other tribal deities, got a place in the Hindu pantheon. Analysed in the light of Jamini Mohan Das’s observations about tribal origin of village deities, as mentioned earlier, and Bishop Whitehead’s (1921) proposition, she was and still is worshipped with animal sacrifice, and is represented by a stone or wooden pillar. The priests of Stambheswari are not Brahmins, but are drawn from all other castes and tribes; and she is worshipped to ward off epidemics like cholera and cattle disease.In due course she, like many other tribal deities, entered into Hindu pantheon and came to be worshipped by the non-tribal (mainly Hindu) rulers who had settled amidst the aboriginal (tribal) communities (Mazumdar 1925:107 ff). Subsequently, she was transformed from a tribal cult to sakti cult of the Brahamnical Hinduism. The shift of tribal goddess to shakti cult is theorised by R. S. Sharma (1974/1958) with reference to the emergence of tantricism.
8.3
More on the topic From Tribal Deities to Village Deities:
- The Mother Goddess of the Tribes
- Kshatriyaisation of the Tribal Chieftains and Aryanisation of the Tribal Deities
- Structure of Devgudi
- Belief in Folk Deities
- ANTHROPOMORPHIC DEITIES
- Deities as reflections of cultural history
- Impact of Stambheswari on Other Cultures
- 21.0 Introduction
- GLOSSARY
- CONTENTS