Super Hero Squad
Six Word Photo Story Challenge: Freestyle
Guardians of the Village God Galaxy
In South India, besides the gorgeous temples, some of which are UNESCO heritage sites, there are myriad village deities or patron deities called “grama devata”. Grama means village, and devata means deity.
The main village deities have guardian or protector deities who are usually “stationed” at the village outskirts. Massive statues — and when I say massive, I am talking about 100-foot (or more) statues. Brightly colored, often scary looking. They are supposed to safeguard the village and its inhabitants from evil spirits.
The deity is usually ferocious-looking and mustached. The most popular ones are Ayyanaar who rides horses, holds a trident and fights demons and punishes the guilty, and Karuppusamy, who rides a tiger. There’s also Muneeswaran, associated with Shiva.
These shrines originally started as large stones called “veerakal” or brave (veera) stones (kal) to commemorate soldiers who sacrificed their lives. Later, they became statues of these deities.
The shrines are open-air with a worship area around them. One will find weapons such as tridents, lances, sickles, swords, and spears placed around them.
In some villages, the deities are small statues in the shade of a tree or in the open fields. They have a tradition of animal sacrifice, especially chicken and goats — to please these gods. *shudder*. They are considered all-powerful.
As we traveled through Tamil Nadu, we came across many of these “roadside” deities. In some places, there were colorful rows of idols of huge elephants and horses — these are supposed to be the vehicles that the guardian deity uses when he does his rounds of the village.
Thank you Mary Chang Story Writer for this beautiful publication and space to show off my photos. I’ve been a bit frozen because of work deadlines.
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