Kula devata

Household Gods. (Kula devata)

"No house is supposed to be without its tutelary divinity, but the notion attached to this character is now very far from precise.

The deity who is the object of hereditary and family worship, the Kula devata, is always one of the leading personages of the Hindu mythology as Siva, Vishnu or Durga but the Griha devata (family God) rarely bears any distinct appellation (designation).

In Bengal the domestic God is sometimes the Salagram Stone, sometimes the Tulasi plant; sometimes a basket with a little rice in it and sometimes a water jar - to either of which a brief adoration is daily addressed, most usually by the females of the family.

Occasionally small images of Lakshmi or Chandi fulfill the office, or should a Snake appear he is venerated as a guardian of the dwelling.

In general, however, in former times, the household deities were regarded as the unseen spirits of ill, the ghosts and goblins who hovered about every spot and claimed some particular sites, as their own. Offerings were made to them, in the open air, by scatering a little rice with a short formula at the clsoe of all ceremonies to keep them in good humour - thus at the end of hte daily ceremony, the Householder is enjoined by Menu "To throw up his oblation (Bali) in the open air to all the Gods, to those who walk by day and those who walk by night.

(Excerpts from "Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, Translated from the Original Sanscsrit. by Horace Hayman Wilson, Esq. in 1827)

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