Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

continuity of sacred places). During the party de'l Mother Goddess (Animal or Attal),
which lasts 16 days, an outcast is retained and nurtured in the temple, as prom-ed of the
goddess. A pariah tied the tali around the neck of Egattala, tutelary goddess of Madras. In
the province of Mysore, a sa-Holiya Cerdotado is considered the local goddess and the
pariah of the village chief as mayor (G. Oppert, On the Bharatavarsa or original
inhabitants of India, Westminster, 1893, p. 52). Also outcasts elsewhere celebrate the
ritual of the goddess rather than the Brahmins (W. Crooke, An Introduction to the
Popular Religion and Folklore of 'Northern India, London, 1894, p. 47). Outcasts belong
to the pre-Aryan tribes, know the secrets of the Goddess and represents "the primordial
duefios of sacredness.
Although from the dogmatic point of view and legal aboriginal tribes by treating
Brahmanic mythology, the caste system, etc.. Are part of Hinduism, almost never use the
services of the Brahmins. As the old gods native ancient religious ceremonies per-lasting,
but under different names and changing times of signification. The tribes venerate the
holy sites-even a tree, a lake, a fountain, a cavern-haunted by his tutelary deities. To
assimilate, Hinduism such tutelary deities identified with the multiple manifestations of
Shiva or Kali (Durga) as to the ancient places of worship, the values curls through
episodes from Hindu mythology. For example: Kalijai goddess, patron deity Chilca Lake
(Orissa), the structure is also confirmed by native that is a sacrifice chickens ofjrecen, S.
C. Mitra, The Cult of the Lake-Goddess of Orissa (Journal Anthrop. Soc Bombay, XII,
1921, p. 190-197). See also Nanimadhab Chaudhuri, Rudra-Siva Deity as an agricultural
(Indian Historical Quarterly, XV, June 1939, p. 1939, p. 183-196: the worship of Siva in
seniihinduizadas tribes, p. 185 et seq.) S . C. Mitra, Tre-Cultsin Notes on the District
Patna in S. Bihar (Journal Bihar-Orissa Research Society, 1928, p. 278-279); id. On the
worship of the Pipal Tree in N. Bihar (id. December 1920, p. 570-572). Pipal on the cult
of literature there is immense: for references in the Epic and Purana, J. J. Meyer, Trilogie,
Altindischer Machte und Feste der Vegetation (Zurich-Leipzig), II, p. 132-134, for the
earlier period, Nanimadhab Chaudhuri, A prehistoric tree cultjjnd. Hist. Quarterly, 1943,
XIX, p. 318-329).
The goddess Durga-Kali, called upon to play a decisive role in Tantrism (see p. 199
onwards), was most likely an aboriginal deity of vegetation and agriculture. The
symbiosis Tantrism-cult of vegetation is visible even today in Bengal: Chintaharan
Chakravarti, The Cult of Baro Bhaiya of Eastern Bengal (Journal of Asiatic Society of
Bengal, XXVI, 1930, n. 1, p. 379-388) on the cult of the "twelve brothers," Baro Bhaiya
and his mother Vanadurga near a tree or Sheoran Ashvath, Tuesdays and Fridays, days
friendly tantric liturgy, then car-neros are slaughtered, goats and buffaloes. It is clear
from the ruling mantra-two on this occasion, Durga Vanadurga corresponds to the tantric
iconography.
The cosmic-plant structure of Durga, registered in the Purana, and tantric literature,
popular mainly in the surrounding aboriginal tribes in hinduizaci6n process. The Devi-
Mahatmya, chap. 92, 43-44 (= Markandeya Purana, 81-93) celebrates the great victory of
the goddess over the demons of the drought Mahis, Sumbha and Nisumbha: "Then, oh,
Gods, alimentare (literally hold £) the entire universe with these plants that sustain life
and grow in my body even during the rainy season. Then, on earth as a glorious sere
Sakamhari ( "bearer of herbs" or "that nourishes the grass") and in the same period, the
great asura destripare called Durgama "for liturgical context of this myth, S. C. Mitra, On