A History of the Mahrattas v1.c7.110

v1.c7.110

All Mahratta learning, except simple reading, writing, and *dēvatas* (local gods). Besides these, various ghost-gods, devils and goblins are worshipped by the lower classes and aboriginal tribes. The *Kuldēvatas* (Kul Swāmī) are mostly goddesses, whose worship appears to have been adopted from the lower and non-Aryan classes and tribes, with whom the *Kuldēvata* is the principal house deity. Many of these goddesses were adopted into the Brahmanic pantheon as *Saktis* or the personified energies of the greater gods, Siva and Vishnu. During the later years of the Pēshwā’s rule the worship of *Kuldēvatas* in the Deccan declined in consequence of a scandal arising from the performance of human sacrifices to those deities by certain Brahmans. (J.B. Anth. S., ii. 202; Crooke, P.R. and F.L., i. 112.)