Corona Amman

Four years ago, a "kumbabhishekam" was organized for a temple in grandmother's village.  That Mariamman Kovil is dedicated to the goddess who, according to the believers, protected them from the dreaded small pox.

Praying to the gods in order to ward off the horrible small pox was not a Hindu thing.  Cultures all over the world did that.  The small pox is the only disease for which there are specific deities because people had such fears about it--and rightfully so.

A few weeks ago, I clarified to my mother that the coronavirus is less like a flu but more like small pox and tuberculosis that they worried about when she was young.  My mother knows well about those old diseases, having survived a TB infection in her chest that nearly killed her.  If not for the modern treatments that had become available, she might have had a short life like her favorite uncle and aunt who died from TB, and I would not be blogging!

Elders had stories about blood sacrifice at the Mariamman Kovil.  Chicken or goats were killed in front of the deity.  One aunt recalled her father taking her to the annual feast at the temple when she was a kid, and described how a guy took a knife to his elbow and then proceeded to "serve" a couple of drops of blood on every banana-leaf.  I wish I had asked her if people consumed that blood too!  Such stories terrorized me as a kid, instead of making me view the goddess as a savior.

But then, as anthropologists note, this was the standard operating procedure of those days.

Contagion goddesses are not angelic and gentle, as one might expect caregivers to be. They are hot-tempered, demanding and fiery. They are deemed wilderness goddesses – highly local and traditionally worshiped primarily by lower caste, Dalit, tribal and rural folk. Some are associated with tantric practices and dark magic.
Placating the goddesses through blood sacrifice, decorative offerings and self mortification, was – and in some places, still is – a way of preparing for a pandemic in parts of India.

And, yes, the Mariamman temples seem to be in the outskirts of the village and far away from the "high caste" neighborhoods.  (Click here for an old post on the caste/religious spatial organization in grandma's village.) 

High caste Hindus and those who mirror high-caste practices often ignored and shunned the contagion goddesses, fearful of the blood rites, possession and the tantric rituals, which they associated with low caste worship.

But, the higher caste folk in grandma's village also donated to the temple--with the hope that the goddess would protect them from small pox.

The Hindu faith is fluid and dynamic, and adapts to changing conditions.

With the widespread use of modern antibiotics, retrovirals and vaccines in the mid 20th century, traditional Hindu healing rituals became less relevant. Contagion goddesses were beginning to be forgotten and ignored. But a handful of them developed rich post-pox lives, reinventing themselves for modern afflictions. Some goddesses moved on from focusing on disease alone.

The gods must be crazy for unleashing such viruses on us humans!