Khambesvari puujaa with Buffalo sacrifice

[Venkatraman Iyer]

The smearing of buffalo sacrifical blood on posts/stones
was/is common among the least studied populations
of South India. English newspapers or elite castes
do not write about them, and naturally westerners
are least aware of them.

"It is estimated, and probably conservatively, that
eighty percent of the people of South India address
their worship almost exclusively to minor, i.e. local
and village deities, and yet these deities receive little
attention in the studies of Hinduism."
(W. Th. Elmore, Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism,
1925, p. ix).

The sad thing is Humanities depts. in Indian universities
have been "killed" by politics and issues of caste in
post-1947 India.

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.