Aṅgāḷamman — goddess of cremation grounds
No primary scriptures are catalogued for this entry yet. If you know of scriptural references we have missed, please contribute them.
Angalamman (Aṅgāḷamman / Aṅgāḷa Parameśvari) is a Tamil fierce-goddess closely identified with Kāḷī. Her principal shrine at Melmalaiyanur (Villupuram district) is famous for the annual Chitra Pournami festival, one of the largest village-goddess gatherings in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil kāval deivam (guardian gods) stand outside the Brahminical orthodoxy. They are propitiated through offerings that are explicitly non-Brahminical: animal sacrifice (now declining), arrack, tobacco, and cigars. Their priesthood is drawn from non-Brahmin communities. Yet these gods form the real religious life of Tamil villages — the kula-deivam (family god) of countless households.
This entry honours Tamil folk tradition on its own terms, not through the Brahminical lens of "minor deity" or "folk variant of X." These are foundational divinities of southern Indian ritual life.
