I

• There is a considerable body of ritual directly referring to the okka, but larger social units such as village (ûr), nåd(comprising a few villages), and simé or désha (comprising a few nads) were never as closely-knit as the okka.
• The festivals of the village-deities, the harvest festival, and folklore are the chief sources of information for these units, though only a small part of each festival directly refers to them.
• A village-deity does not necessarily belong to a single village; multiple villages may celebrate the festival of the same deity.
• Every temple in a village usually contains more than one deity, including one chief deity from which the temple derives its name and other secondary deities.
• Example: The Kundat Bhadrakāli temple in Kuklür derives its name from Bhadrakāli, and contains deities like Gaņēsha, Sārtāvu (Ayyappa), and a linga (representing Shiva).
• Poleyas of Kuklür have representations of their own deities outside the temple compound.
• In Armeri (Beppunād), there are several temples: one dedicated to Bhagavati, another to Mahādēva, two to Ayyappa, and six to Raktëshwari.
• Temples dedicated to Bhagavati, Mahādēva, and Ayyappa have Brahmin priests using Sanskrit mantras, whereas those dedicated to Raktëshwari have no Brahmin priests, and pigs are sacrificed.
• There are two modes of worship: Sanskritic and non-Sanskritic, and both are mixed in varying proportions in the village-deity festivals.
• Temples in a village may represent a blend of Sanskritic and non-Sanskritic elements, and a village-deity may be worshipped across multiple villages.
• The festival of a village-deity requires co-operation between various temples in a village and often between villages.
• Example: The festivals of Ketrappa and Chaundi in Bengür occur at the same time but dovetail, with an offering called térémudi sent by both the Bhagavati and Chaundi temples to the Ketrappa temple on the eighteenth day of the biennial Ketrappa festival.
• Balmāvti, a few miles from Bengür, has a temple dedicated to Bhagavati with a biennial festival, alternating with Ketrappa’s festival.
• This arrangement shows co-operation between the villages of Begunād and Ballatnād, despite a past feud.
• Baņņas and Maléyas, who officiate as oracles and dancers at the Ketrappa festival, come from Saņña Pulikõţu and Balmāvti, respectively. They are in demand across surrounding villages but fulfill all their ritual engagements.
• Panikas from Biligunda officiate at the Kundat Bhadrakāli festival in Kuklür, and their participation is ensured by an advance payment (Rs 50 and two gold bangles).
• The advance payment guarantees the Panikas’ attendance and services at the festival.
• The Baņña, Maléya, or Panika can fulfill their engagements only if the festivals do not clash with each other.
• Ketrappa’s fondness for toddy is reflected in the saying “kētrappang patradodané“, meaning “the entire pot of toddy for Ketrappa”.
• Part of the ritual in the Ketrappa festival involves fetching toddy from the Kopațți hills (seven miles from Bengür), tapped by the Kudiyas tribe.
• Festival-priests go to the Kopațți hills on the seventh day of the festival, carrying new earthen pots filled with paddy, which is the Kudiyas’ perquisite.
• These pots are brought back on the sixteenth day, and toddy is offered to Ketrappa and other deities in Bengür on the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth days.
• Kudiyas visit the Ketrappa temple on the eighteenth day to offer their homage, watch the ritual, and receive a share of meat and toddy.
• Every kāvukāra (priestly okka) in Bengür sends at least one representative to the Kopațți hills on the seventh day.
• These priests leave at around 4 a.m., after taking a bath in cold water and wearing ritually pure robes, maintaining purity.
• A secret esoteric ritual takes place in the Kopațți hills related to a Kudiya oracle of Ayyappa, a deity of the Kudiyas.
• The festival requires co-operation between the people of Bengür and the Kudiyas, a hill tribe in the inaccessible hills.
• A village-deity festival often involves co-operation with other villages, tribes, or castes living in different villages or nads.

II

• Village-deities are an All-India phenomenon, with similar characteristics and worship techniques across India, though regional variations exist.
• Each region or district in India tends to have greater cultural unity than the larger area it belongs to.
• In peninsular India, linguistic areas often represent cultural homogeneity, and cultural forms common to two or more linguistic areas exist (e.g., Malayalam and Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Marathi).
• There are differences within linguistic areas; central regions might have cultural forms not present in peripheral regions or in altered forms.
• Geographical barriers also often act as cultural barriers (e.g., Malabar littoral stripe has difficulty spreading cultural forms into the mainland of peninsular India).
• A place like Coorg, located at the periphery of Kannada, Malayalam, and Tulu areas, shares certain cultural forms with each of them.
• Throughout peninsular India, village-deities are represented by unhewn stones or crude images of stone or wood.
• Shrines for village-deities are usually not elaborate, and sometimes deities are simply embedded in the earth without any roof.
• Shrines dedicated to village-deities are often found at the foot of trees or in the shade of a grove.
• Worship practices vary widely: some temples have daily worship, others have it weekly, while some may only observe it during the festival of the deity.
• Village-deity festivals often last several days, culminating in sacrifices of fowl, sheep, goats, and buffaloes.
• Devotees may perform acts such as walking barefoot across fire, or gashing themselves with swords during the last day of the festival.
• Priests at Sanskritic temples are usually Brahmins, but non-Brahmin castes often serve as priests at village-deity temples.
• In regions like Coorg, Brahmins from South Canara are often priests at village-deity temples, while in Mysore and the ‘ramil’ country, non-Brahmin caste members typically serve as priests.
• Mari is a common village-deity throughout peninsular India (excluding Kerala), associated with epidemic diseases like plague, smallpox, and cholera.
• Mari is propitiated in summer, and whenever epidemics occur.
• Female deities are common among village-deities in peninsular India, especially east of the Western Ghats.
• Ellamma (meaning ‘boundary-mother’) is a familiar deity in Telugu and Tamil villages. Kaul is another familiar goddess.
• Not all village-deities are goddesses; there are male gods such as Ayyanar in Tamil villages, who watches over the village at night, and Biredevaru in Kannada villages.
• Bull buffaloes are commonly sacrificed to village-deities in peninsular India, except in Malayalam-speaking areaswhere pigs, goats, sheep, and fowl are preferred.
• In the south-western part of Coorg, which shares cultural forms with Malabar, bull buffaloes are not sacrificed to village-deities.
• In the eastern and northern parts of Coorg, buffaloes are sacrificed, especially to Mari.
• In some villages near Mercara (Coorg), locals have opposed the sacrifice of bull buffaloes to Mari, arguing that buffaloes are equivalent to cows, and slaughtering them should be prohibited.
• Despite reverence for cattle, the sacrifice of bull buffaloes to village-deities is still common in other parts of South India.
• Recently, Indian National Congress leaders have been successfully opposing the propitiation of village-deities with blood-offerings.
• The most common village-deities in Coorg are Bhagavati (Povvedi) and Ayyappa (Shasta), with other deities like Chaunci, Chamunci (f.), Kali (f.), and Ketrappa (Kshetrapala) also occasionally present.
• These deities are also found in Malabar and South Canara, and folk songs in Coorg often describe these deities as immigrants from these regions.
• In the folk songs, deities coming from Malabar or South Canara are said to bring along minor deities seeking shelter in Coorg, some of which go to established temples in Coorg like Kaveri and Sartabu (Ayyappa) temples.
• The Ketrappa festival song tells the story of Ketrappa’s arrival in Bengur from Malabar, with a caravan of Bengur youths led by Kallumacla Ayyalnfa.
• The song also describes various deities (e.g., Pattu Kutt Patala, Povvedi, Chaunci, and Puda) asking for shelter, which Ketrappa grants by settling them in Bengur and surrounding places like Ivattu-okkalu, Heravanacla, and the Kopatti Hills.
• These folksongs are not historically accurate but serve to explain the existence of multiple deities in Coorg and their interrelations, with one deity sometimes being made the leader of others.
• Coorg, Malabar, and South Canara share cultural and ritual forms, with some of these forms being spread from Malabar and South Canara into Coorg.
• Tulu-speaking Brahmins from South Canara serve as priests in many Coorg temples, facilitating the spread of Tuluand Sanskritic cultural and ritual forms.
• Similarly, the Kalaiya (astrologer) and Barniya and Panikas were responsible for spreading Malayalam and Sanskritic cultural forms in Coorg.
• This cultural diffusion does not mean that Coorg’s cultural forms are always derived from external regions, as Coorg also has distinct local practices.
• Coorgs historically traveled to Malabar to learn medicine and magic, influencing their communities upon returning. Notable figures like Kaliyatancia Ponnappa (Ajjappa) and Chendappancia Kungu are said to have learned magic and medicine in Malabar and became culture-heroes.
• Coorgs would annually trade with Malabar, spreading cultural forms alongside their goods.
• Deities are commonly known by reference to the village they belong to (e.g., Pannangalatamme as ‘Mother of Pannangala’, Pahirappa as ‘Father of Pailur’).
• The name of a deity often indicates its village affiliation, such as Povvedi of BallatnacI or Bhadrakaji of Kundat.
• Popular deity names may mask Sanskritic affiliations: for example, Kuttatamme is Karin Kali, a manifestation of Parvati, though the local name is more commonly used.
• Some deities, like Bhadrakaji, Chamunci, and Povvedi, have obvious Sanskritic affiliations, though not all devotees may recognize this.
• Village-deities are not regarded as gentle in Coorg, as seen in the example of Maderappa, whose presence causes misfortune (e.g., flowers wilting, seeds failing, babies dying).
• Deities reward those who propitiate them by preventing epidemics (e.g., plague, cholera, smallpox), granting children, good crops, longevity, and protection from ghosts and spirits.
• The oracle of a deity acts as an exorcist during the deity’s festival.
• Sanskritic Hinduism sees village gods as manifestations of Shiva and goddesses as manifestations of Parvati, which reflects the broader All-India Hinduism systematization.