| Temples & Legends Of Bengal |
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| Temples & Legends Of
India |
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PREFACE |
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| The use of
cluster of paddy, dub grass, plantains, turmeric, pan, coconut, vermillion, ghat
(pot), cowdung, mango leaves etc., that lays a prominent part in the daily religious
ceremonies can hardly be traced to anything Brahmanic. Many of the non-Aryan deities and Gramyadevaras
have now been fully accepted by the higher caste Hindus and they are worshipped in
temples either individually or along with Vaidik or Pauranik gods. In the
case of some of those deities very low caste Dom officiate as the priest and Brahmins
offer their pujas to such deities and are monitored by the Dom priest. There is a large
number of bratas distributed in different months that are still observed in Bengal.
Some of them are related to cultivation, others with
eroticism and a number of them are to keep up social and family solidarity. Some of the
bratas are associated with Tithis and they have got some Brahmanic influence while a few
have nothing to do with Tithis and they are clearly of non-Aryan origin. A dissertation on
the bralas of Bengal will be out of place in the course of the text and so a brief mention
has been made here as they are very closely allied to the worship of some god heads or
other. |
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