Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s5.2

c14.s5.2

An account of the religious conditions of the period will not be complete without a mention of the village Gods and their festivals. The village deities were considered to be the guardian deities that protected the people of the respective villages from evil spirits, and were propitiated by the residents. As Whitehead remarks, " the sole object of the worship of these village deities is to propitiate them and avert their wrath. There is no idea of praise and thanksgiving, no expression of gratitude or love, no desire for any spiritual or moral blessings. The one object is to get rid of cholera, small-pox,........The worship, therefore, in most of the villages takes place occasionally."166