sacrifices must be performed elsewhere on the hill; not least of all the
goddess has been given the name S ́rı ̄ Jagadamba. Those Madigas who
support such a change would claim that, if now the goddess has been
elevated to a more “noble” state, it is only her just due, as from the beginning
she was the supreme being!
The social elevation of other communities has been reflected in the way
by which their goddesses have been linked to brahmanical mythology.
Such goddesses as Ma ̄riamman
̄
, Renuka, and Peddamma, for example, share
variations of a common myth. Ma ̄riamman
̄
and Peddamma have very
recently been the deities of “folk,” agrarian communities, while Renuka
has been classicized for a much longer period. Their shared myth may be
summarized as follows: once the goddess was a very chaste woman married
to a sage. Everyday her chastity permitted her to bring water home on the
top of her head (by some accounts, without benefit of a pot!). One day, when
bringing water home she was momentarily diverted by a heavenly male figure
and the water splashed all over her and she arrived late. When her husband
saw what had happened, he was furious and ordered his sons to slay their
mother. Only one of them, Para ̄s ́ura ̄ma, the cosmic “hatchet man,” was
willing to do the job, beheading his mother and her laundry maid with one
stroke. The father was so pleased at the completion of the job, he offered
Para ̄s ́ura ̄ma a favor. The latter asked that his mother be restored to life; the
boon was granted. In his haste, Para ̄s ́ura ̄ma switched heads in restoring life
- one was the head of a brahman woman, the other the head of the low-caste
cleaning woman.^17 In restoring life, the distinctions between caste were
collapsed. The one had become brahman, the other retained a brahmanic
body. These goddesses are often depicted in portraits at their shrine only by
a head. Increasingly, their shrines (especially in the case of Renuka and
Ma ̄riamman
̄
) have brahman priests as the goddess of the “folk” has become
“classicized.” This newly brahmanized goddess is also linked at times to the
tantric goddess Chinnamasta, who is known to sever her own head in order
to nourish her attendants.
Conversions of another kind
On June 30, 2001, The Hindu, a prominent Indian newspaper, reported that
some 1,000 people from some 225 low-caste families living in villages near
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, had “embraced” Christianity. The people alleged,
through their spokesperson, that they had not been allowed to worship in
a particular temple, and, in fact, had been “humiliated” at a festival event
on June 6 of that year. Despite several attempts to present their grievance to
authorities, they claimed such authorities did not respond. Hence, their
“mass” conversion to Christianity.^18
212 Religion in Contemporary India