were, for example, people living in villages oriented by the agricultural cycle,
and tribal peoples only marginally being assimilated into urban life. It is most
difficult to reconstruct the religious life of such communities for several
reasons. For example, while certain practices found today in “folk” settings
may have “ancient” roots, it is difficult to ascertain precisely how far back
these go. Further, certain practices cited in the texts of the period may have
had their roots in folk settings, but are already in the process of being
assimilated into Hinduism. Nonetheless, some scholars – for example,
A. L. Basham and P. V. Kane – do speculate as to some of the forms that
“popular religion” was taking in this period.
Religious practices at the popular or folk level may well have included the
following features. Worship of goddesses in local villages seems highly likely.
Each such goddess would have been seen as protectoress of land and village
and the one who controlled the forces of nature, including diseases. These
village goddesses were probably pacified in a special way (as they are today)
at the coming of the rainy seasons in order to avert diseases and assure
fertility of the land.^40
Goddesses would have been worshiped with flowers, peacock feathers,
and wine but also by the sacrifice of animals, especially buffaloes, goats,
sheep, and chickens.^41 The spilling of blood would satisfy and empower the
goddess, invoke her protection, and keep the land fertile. Rituals associated
with buffalo sacrifice were intimated in this period: a buffalo demon iden-
tified as a fierce asuraknown as Mahis.a was mentioned in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata
and by the name Dundubhai in the Rama ̄ya ̄n.a.^42 That this buffalo demon
was slain by a goddess who came to be associated with Durga ̄, is suggested
by terra-cotta representatives of a four-armed goddess riding a lion and
slaying a buffalo.^43 In addition, both A. L. Basham and P. V. Kane believed
that the sacrifice of human beings was probable in some settings.^44
Goddesses were probably represented by a stone or simple clay effigy set
up under a tree thought to be sacred.^45 Such trees as the pı ̄pal, banyan,
oras ́okawere ascribed special sacrality and/or the power to help women
bear children.
Ritual life in villages was no doubt oriented by the seasons, especially the
monsoons and the agricultural cycle. Ritual bathing in rivers in spate is
attested in some sources datable to this period as are the collective dances
of young women in praise of the deity.^46 Snakes were apparently venerated
as symbols of both death and fertility and may have been given offerings
at the start of the rainy season.^47 Anthills may have been respected as the
houses of snakes.^48
As suggested by the references to the buffalo demon, a belief in demonic
beings was probable – these demons would have been thought to con-
trol certain distinctive forces or to have appeared at inauspicious times. In
The Urban Period 77