The village deities are always female, and usually can only be propitiated by the shedding of blood. They are not, however, merely malevolent, but will confer benefits on those whom they favour. Some of the most common of them are Núkálamma, Paradésamma, Néralamma, Mallamma, Póléramma, Muthyálamma, Peddintamma, Sómalamma, Bangáramma, Mávullamma, and Talupulamma. Wherever one of them is established, her brother, who always goes by the name of Póturázu, is also worshipped. Some of them have a reputation far beyond the local limits of their villages, and are visited by pilgrims from distant places. Núkálamma of Kándrakóta in Peddápuram taluk, Mávullamma of Márédipáka in Rámachandrapuram and Sómalamma of Rajahmundry are famous almost throughout the district. These village goddesses are ordinarily worshipped only on the occasion of their annual festival. A buffalo and a number of sheep and fowls are then sacrificed to them. The fowls are killed at the four corners of the village; the buffalo is slain at about midnight on the last day of the festival, its blood is collected in a pot, and grain of various kinds is put into it. The blood is left in the temple in front of the goddess, and a day or two later the prospects of the harvest are foretold from the degree to which the various kinds of grain have sprouted.
Among the deities who are worshipped by special castes are Kanyakamma, the goddess of the Kómatis, referred to later, the Káttumai (who is also sometimes called Káttumáhésvarudu) of the Gamallas and Idigas, the Gontiyálamma (the mother of the Pándava brothers) of the Málas, the Kamsalas' Kámákshi-amma, the Karnabattus' Sómésvara, and the Mádigas' Mátangiralu. Bráhman families also often have 'some favourite deity whom they worship in preference to all others.
Maridamma, who in many respects corresponds to the Máriamma of the south, is purely malevolent in character and is not in the habit of conferring benefits. She brings disease upon the villages, but can be induced by becoming worship to hold her hand. She is offered animal sacrifices whenever serious sickness visits a village. Sometimes a small car is made to which pigs and fowls are tied and which is then dragged through the village. Every household pours offerings of rice, etc., upon it and it is at last left outside the village limits to symbolise the departure of the goddess. The animals are taken away by the Málas and Mádigas.*[1]
- ↑ * A somewhat similar ceremony is mentioned in the Bellary Gazetteer, 60.
