Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism 75 



I will stay to bless you. If you do not, I will destroy you and 

 your house and go to another place." This order was obeyed 

 and she has become far renowned. The last great festival was 

 held in September, 19 13. The reason given was that the railway 

 which has been built near her temple, gives her the headache, and 

 she contemplates removing to Madras. Thirty-two buffalos 

 were beheaded before her at that time. 



Kudullamma is the village goddess of Chakicherala, Kandu- 

 kuru Taluq. When she is worshiped blood is shed until it flows 

 in streams. Beneath the water pot, to keep it from rolling over, 

 is placed a small ring of grass or wattled twigs called kudulla. 

 One night an inmate of a house in this village dreamed that he 

 saw a goddess rise from the kudulla under a water pot in his 

 house. She demanded that she be worshiped, and so real was his 

 dream that he secured a stone, said that it was the goddess whom 

 he had seen, and instituted the worship. 



These are the legends connected with some of the Dravidian 

 deities. It is probable that every Dravidian deity has had a simi- 

 lar local origin but the stories are forgotten in many cases, and 

 the people answer simply that the god was worshiped by their 

 fathers and so they have continued it. This local origin is a defi- 

 nite characteristic distinguishing these gods from those of Hindu- 

 ism, which originate in the abode of the gods. 



In the majority of these local legends the gods were once 

 human beings. This characteristic is so constant that we may 

 suppose that in the cases where a new god appears outright with- 

 out a human history, there was such a history believed in by 

 those who instituted the worship. They probably simply thought 

 that the history was unknown to them. It is possible also that in 

 the case of these exceptions the influence of Hinduism is shown, 

 for Hindu gods come to the earth with no human mediation.^® 



" In Madavaram, Darsi Taluq, there was until recently a god called Potu- 

 kuri Verabramham, who, while scarcely a village deity, has a most interest- 

 ing origin. The story as told in the villages where Verabramham is wor- 

 shiped runs as follows. In a carpenter's family there was a son born who 

 took his place among the other children of the family. When he was a 

 large boy he was one day feeding the cattle, and saw a man who had just 



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