DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0221
CHAPTER VIII.
Tutelary and Village Deities.
It may be said that all deities ought to be called tutelary,
and no doubt the idea of protecting from harm is essential to
the later idea of a god. But among rude, uncultivated races
the first conception of a god is never that of a protector or
saviour. Primitive man, just emerging from the depths of a
merely animal existence, finds himself face to face with
mighty mysterious natural forces. He sees, feels, and dreads
their operation. He personifies and deifies them, and gives
them names expressive of the awe with which their power has
impressed him, or of his desire to propitiate them. It is a
question whether any of the primary names for God in any
country are significant of his attributes as a Guardian,
Saviour, and Deliverer. In India tutelary functions were
no doubt ultimately associated with both Siva and Vishnu,
but in the case of Vishnu they were delegated, as we have
seen, to his incarnations or descents on earth, and in the case
of Siva to his sons Ganesa and Skanda and to his consort the
great goddess Devi, regarded as the mother of the world and
worshipped under a great variety of different names in
different localities. In the South of India another tutelary
god named Ayenar, the reputed son of Vishnu and Siva
(see p. 218), is very popular among the peasantry.
Whether the worship of these village deities (grama-
devata) is a mere offshoot or ramification of the religion
of Siva and Vishnu is very doubtful. It is much more
probable that the village gods represent far earlier and more
P
Tutelary and Village Deities.
It may be said that all deities ought to be called tutelary,
and no doubt the idea of protecting from harm is essential to
the later idea of a god. But among rude, uncultivated races
the first conception of a god is never that of a protector or
saviour. Primitive man, just emerging from the depths of a
merely animal existence, finds himself face to face with
mighty mysterious natural forces. He sees, feels, and dreads
their operation. He personifies and deifies them, and gives
them names expressive of the awe with which their power has
impressed him, or of his desire to propitiate them. It is a
question whether any of the primary names for God in any
country are significant of his attributes as a Guardian,
Saviour, and Deliverer. In India tutelary functions were
no doubt ultimately associated with both Siva and Vishnu,
but in the case of Vishnu they were delegated, as we have
seen, to his incarnations or descents on earth, and in the case
of Siva to his sons Ganesa and Skanda and to his consort the
great goddess Devi, regarded as the mother of the world and
worshipped under a great variety of different names in
different localities. In the South of India another tutelary
god named Ayenar, the reputed son of Vishnu and Siva
(see p. 218), is very popular among the peasantry.
Whether the worship of these village deities (grama-
devata) is a mere offshoot or ramification of the religion
of Siva and Vishnu is very doubtful. It is much more
probable that the village gods represent far earlier and more
P