[Re: On substratum religion]

[Dr.S.Kalyanaraman]

> N. Ganesan cited:(snip)> Interesting note you sent me.  Thank you.  Similar
situation in Tulunad.> And I remember now discussing it with Brenda.  There
are remarkably> strong> similarities across the substratum of Hinduism you
talk about. (snip)>

Anything to do with 'Mother Goddess' seems to be substratum! Perhaps, it may
be not be completely appropriate to separate the religious beliefs as they
evolved, say in the bronze age, into compartments of (substratum, aryan cosmos
etc.) Maha_vrata is a good example; it is a winter solstice festival and
heralds the start of agnis.t.oma as the sun moves from the zodiacal sign of
capricorn to cancer. It is of course, substratum, winter harvest festival,
po_ki (bhogi), bogha_li bighu, rohr.i. There are many instances of female
divinities in the Rigveda, designated as devi_. 

Some trace the Mother Goddess concepts to Sumer and thence, the debate re:
diffusion of ideas. 

Perhaps, another way to look at the issue is to coalesce the 'substratum of
Hinduism' from a variety of sources: textual (classicss/epigraphs),
anthropological (folk-beliefs?)

Thanks to Ganesan and Mary Storm for the biblio on iconography of devi_; I am
still struggling with understanding the icons of female divinities carrying
weapons in multiple hands.

Regards,
Kalyanaraman

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