Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism 6i 



structed them to build her a shrine outside the village where the 

 pounding of the grain and the crowing of the cocks would not dis- 

 turb her. She promised, if this was done, to come and inhabit the 

 shrine, and that she would then receive their gifts and in return 

 would protect them. 



The stories of the local origin of the fiercer Saktis, such as are 

 described above,* are not common. Many of these Saktis are 

 demons which do not appear to have been incarnated, and so have 

 no stories. Where stories do exist, the nature of the Saktis and 

 fear of them, would prevent the stories from being popular. An 

 occasional legend is found of the human origin of a Sakti. 



Tota Kuramma is a Sakti whose history is told. The story is 

 that at one time there was a great feast in a Hindu house. These 

 Hindus were not Brahmans and had prepared mutton and pork 

 for the feast. While they were eating, a begging Mohammedan 

 and his wife came to the house to ask alms from the guests. The 

 head of the house kindly invited them to come in and eat. They 

 accepted the invitation, and sat down. But the curry which was 

 brought contained pork. Seeing this the beggars were very angry 

 and going out, drowned themselves in a well. 



From that time these two Mohammedans have been wandering 

 demons. They go about the villages at night and call, Kura! 

 Tota kura! which means vegetables, or commonly simply spinach. 

 If anyone goes out to purchase the vegetables the demons will say, 

 " May your mouth fall," which means, may your speech be para- 

 lyzed, and as soon as these words are spoken the one thus cursed 

 falls down and dies." 



There is another current story which is somewhat more pleas- 

 ing. A Mohammedan woman and a Hindu woman were intimate 

 friends. One day the Hindu woman asked the Mohammedan 

 woman to eat with her, and not thinking of the Mohammedan atti- 

 tude toward pigs, gave her pork curry. The guest recognized the 

 meat, but so great was her love for the Hindu woman that she ate 



* See pp. 37 sq. 



^ It is commonly said that any demon calls three times in the night, so 

 no one responds to a call at night until it has been repeated four times. 

 See Manual of Administration of Madras Presidency, p. 8l. 



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