THERE is no lack of authoritative works on Hinduism as a system of religion. No other system, with the exception of Christianity, is so interesting, so fully known, or has attracted so many to its study. With such abundant interest, it seems somewhat strange that a great branch of nominal Hinduism has been very largely neglected in these works. This branch is the worship of local and village deities. It is estimated, and probably conservatively, that eighty per cent of the people of South India address their worship almost exclusively to such minor deities, and yet these deities receive little attention in studies of Hinduism. Often they are dismissed with a page or two, while the remainder of the treatment is given to the Brahmanic deities."
The reasons for this apparent neglect are not difficult to discover. There is no systematized teaching connect-ed with village cults or worship. No interesting systems of philosophy lie behind them. The Dravidians are not a literary people, and their religion has no literature. There are no Vedas or other writings telling of their gods. Their history is contained in the some-what confused legends recited by wandering singers who attend the festivals and assist in the worship.
These legends and stories are always recited from memory; and as usually the singers cannot read, written stories would be of no value to them. Many of the legends, however, are written on books made from the leaves of the palmyra palm, but such books are jealously guarded, and any suggestion as to translating or printing them meets with strong objections.
This worship is found largely among uneducated people, and not only are they unable to give any connected account of their gods or the principles of their worship, but as soon as they see any systematic attempt being made to learn of these things they are filled with superstitious fears, and it is almost impossible. to them to tell what they do know.'
Again, the educated people of the land know little about these local gods, and affect to know less. Any questions are met with the reply that their worship belongs to out-castes and the lower orders of society, and that they know nothing about it. The Brahmans have a considerable interest in these gods, as will be seen later, and no doubt know far more than they are willing to admit. They are ashamed of their connexion with this worship and of their fears of the gods. Then too, since this worship is almost exclusively that of propitiation to avert some evil which a local god may be perpetrating or intending, the Brahmans do not wish to run the risk of incurring the displeasure of a god by careless remarks about it, or even of attracting its attention by allusions to it. They therefore pretend complete ignorance.
For these reasons the difficulties of learning about the subject are considerable. The material, while almost limitless, is very fugitive. There is scarcely any other way to gain necessary information than by protracted residence in India, by securing one point at a time, by coming into as close contact with the people as possible, by observing their worship, by learning as much as possible about each local deity met with, and obtaining one story here and another there.
Vedas (1182)
Upanishads (493)
Puranas (624)
Ramayana (741)
Mahabharata (354)
Dharmasastras (165)
Goddess (496)
Bhakti (242)
Saints (1503)
Gods (1290)
Shiva (370)
Journal (187)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (362)
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