Village deities of Tamils of Sri Lanka
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Village deities are a common feature of Hindu pantheon of deities. They are known as Gramadevatas. Each region and caste of India and Hindu dominated parts of rest of South Asia has its share of village deities. Sri Lankan Tamils have their own specific list of village deities throughout Sri Lanka specifically in the Tamil dominated North and East of the Island nation.
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[edit] List of deities
Annamar is a caste deity of the Nalavar and Pallar caste. Mutalikal is possibly a caste deity, used by Karaiyar. Periyatampiran or the great master, a caste god of the washer men. Ayyanar now equated sometimes with Sasta is a popular deity in almost all villages. Virumar is possibly a caste god of the smiths. Kattavarayan or the Saviour hero. Naccimar or the ladies - now quite often given in the form Amman or Ampal, the mother Goddess. Sapta Kanniyar or seven virgins. Naka tampiran or snake master is also common deity in most villages. Vairavar another popular village deity and. Kali or black goddess and Kannaki Amman a popular goddess of the east of the country are female deities.
[edit] Sanskritisation
The identities of some of above the lesser known deities are getting lost and most of them are now identified as Vairavar and Kali. Both are worshipped in the form of Trisulam ( tridents). Further the Saiva revivalism initiated by Arumuga Navalar has enabled many high status Tamils to subsume the village deities with the Agamic pantheon thus within the Jaffna Peninsula the number temples dedicated to Kannaki Amman has been converted to regular Mariamman temples.[1] [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Sri Lankan Tamil Society and Politics
- ^ Hudson, Dennis (January 1992). Religious Controversy in British India: Dialogues in South Asian Languages. State University of New York. ISBN 0791408272.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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