Pidari
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Pidari also Pitari or Pidari Ammanor Pidaraska, is a non-Vedic goddess popular amongst relatively un-sanskritized social groups of rural Tamil Nadu. She is also known as Pitali and Kali-Pidari.
She was referred as the snake catcher, and in Brahminic literature equated with one of the consorts of Shiva, as a benevolent goddess.
The cult of Pitari evolved as a synthesis of native mother goddess with an aspect of the goddess Kali and is invoked in many villages to ward off evil and demons. The cult was noticed by elite literature by seventh century AD and was primarily centered in Tamil Nadu. Her cult moved on and reached a climax in eastern India between the eighth and twelfth centuries.
[edit] Iconography
This Village Goddess possesses most of the attributes of Kali. Her attributes are the cup, fire, noose, and trident. She may also have snakes coiled around her breasts.[1]
Like most village Goddesses she may be represented by a stone. Still many Amman temples in Tamil Nadu have the suffix Pidari.
[edit] References
- ^ www.dhyani.nl/Pidari.htm
- Jordan, Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods, New York, Facts On File, Inc. 1993, p. 205
[edit] See also
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