A grāmadevatā is the name of the presiding deity or guardian deity, usually goddesses, worshipped in villages in India. It is derived from the words grāma “village” and devatā “deity”. Most grāmadevatās are village deities who are worshipped solely by inhabitants of their village. Principle Hindu deities such as Shiva and incarnations of Vishnu are also worshipped alongside the grāmadevatās. They are often worshipped in aniconic forms of the earthenware pots or stones. Although grāmadevatās are most often goddesses, there are a few notable male exceptions. Dharma-Thakkur is a god of fertility and disease in West Bengal state of India. Another example is found in Kal Bhairav, a fierce form of Lord Shiva is the grāmadevatā in the rural villages of Maharashtra, where he is referred to as Vairavar. Most Gramadevatas are believed to originate from the pre-Vedic beliefs of indigenous inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. The worship patterns vary according to region but most do not rely on the Vedas and employ non-Brahmins as priests. Unlike Brahminical deities, these village deities will not usually have large temples but have open spaces. A common pattern, especially in South India, is to have a village goddess and a guardian and protector of the village at the village boundary.
Origins
The earliest appearance of the "Mother Goddess" found in South Asia is in Mehrgarh in the form of female terracotta figurines dating to the 4th millennium BCE. These figurines are believed to represent the "Mother Goddess." Similar female figurines are found in 3rd-2nd millennium figures from Harappan civilization sites, including a woman with a plant emerging from her womb and a woman in a tree being worshipped by another woman, with seven figures below. Due to their association with agriculture, the idea of the earth spirit of bhumi is still a common association with villages today just as it was in Harappan times. Evidence of continued veneration of a female village deity comes from a terracotta fragment Chandraketugarh from what is now eastern West Bengal dating to the 1st century BCE. The plaque shows a figure holding a parasol, evidently a goddess, being worshipped with earthen pots, fruits, flowers and other offerings similar to those given to modern-day village goddesses. Another group of common iconography related to gramadevatas are the sapta matrika, the "seven mothers." The first mention of these goddesses occurs in the later layers of the Mahabharata dating to the 1st century CE, and their lack of mention in the Vedas indicates a non-Vedic origin for these goddesses. In addition to the fertility goddesses, the various disease goddesses include deities described with unappealing physical characteristics like Mariamman and Mata. These goddesses could be represented in the Harappan period by a goddess with weapons in her hair. Similarly violent goddesses absorbed into Puranic Hinduism, like Durga, appear around the 1st century BCE-1st century CE.
