Page:An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India.djvu/15



, xviii, 483–88.

The Deva and the Devata.

general term for the great gods of Hinduism, the supreme triad—Bráhma, Vishnu and Siva—and other deities of the higher class which collectively constitute the Hindu official pantheon is Deva or "the shining ones." With these supremely powerful deities we have now little concern. They are the deities of the richer or higher classes, and to the ordinary peasant of Northern India these great gods are little more than a name. He will, it is true, occasionally bow at their shrines: he will pour some water or lay some flowers on the images or fetish stones which are the special resting places of these divinities or represent the productive powers of nature. But from time immemorial, when Bráhmanisim had as yet not succeeded in occupying the land, his allegiance was bestowed on a class of deities of a much lower and more primitive kind. Their inferiority in rank to the greater gods is marked in their title. They are called Devata or "godlings," not "gods."

Godlings pure and impure.

These godlings have been conveniently classified by Mr. Ibbetson into "the pure" and "the impure." To the former the offerings are such as are pure food to the Hindu—cakes of wheaten flour, and in particular those which have been still further purified by intermixture with clarified butter (ghí), the most valued product of the sacred cow. Such offerings are usually made on a Sunday, and they are taken