96 Wilber Theodore JElmore 



head and trunk lying near, and recognizing the face of the slave, 

 he joined the head and body and caused her to live again also. 



It was now growing light, and what was his vexation to discover 

 that he had mixed the heads and bodies, and his mother's head was 

 now attached to the body of the Madiga slave, and vice versa. 

 He did not dare risk another double murder to put the matter 

 right, and so was compelled to bring the two women to his father, 

 and beg his forgiveness. Jamadagni was angry, but at last con- 

 sented to accept as his wife the woman who had Renuka's head. 

 He then made the other woman an inferior deity, and she became 

 Matangi. 



This surely marks the limit for the mixture of the Brahman and 

 Madiga cults. According to this story Matangi has the body of a 

 Hindu deity and the head of a Madiga woman. It is evidently a 

 definite attempt on the part of the Brahmans to explain the interest 

 which they have in the Matangi, and also an attempt to attach this 

 important goddess to the Hindu pantheon. 



Another version of the story^^ relates that Renuka took refuge 

 with the Madigas to escape being slain by her son. When they 

 refused to give her up, he slew them all. When he went later to 

 reanimate his mother he made the mistake of placing her head 

 on the body of a Madiga woman, but no one else was reanimated. 

 His father refused to accept this woman as his wife and she re- 

 mained with the Madigas as Ellamma, who is said to be another 

 form of Matangi. This story appears to be the Madiga recension 

 of the former story in which the slave became Matangi. 



The asadis, Madiga story tellers, recite a legend^^ which gives a 

 still further account of the connection between Matangi and El- 

 lamma, but does not make them identical. According to this tale, 

 Ellamma is the wife of Jamadagni, and so identical with Renuka. 

 She is the original Sakti, and the first cause of the universe. 

 Matangi is an inferior deity who secures her powers by associa- 

 tion with Ellamma. 



The story proceeds to tell that one day Ellamma was going to a 



38 E. R. Clough, While Sewing Sandals, New York, 1899, p. 85. 

 37 Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Madras, 1909, IV, pp. 

 306 sq. 



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