Historical Period13c CE
Oral tradition ancient; major jatara documented from 13th c. CE
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Deities
Poleramma
Poleramma — the great goddess of Andhra-Telangana
Poleramma — the great goddess of Andhra-Telangana
A gram-devatā ("village deity") is the specific god of a specific village — not the pan-Indic god of scripture, but this god, in this place, protecting these people. Every Indian village has one. There are thousands. Most do not appear in textbooks. Their names and functions change every 50 kilometres. The officiating priest is usually not Brahmin — he is from the local caste, the work passing father to son. Worship is oral, ritual, and embodied, not textual.
Poleramma ("the goddess of the outskirts/boundaries") is the primary gram-devata of Telangana and Rayalaseema. Every village has a Poleramma shrine — a simple thatched structure at the edge of the village, often with just a painted stone or a pot representing her. She protects against smallpox, cholera, and evil spirits. The Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara at Medaram (in the same pantheon) is the largest tribal gathering in Asia — 15 million in 2022. Village Poleramma festivals involve three days of drumming (dappu), sacrifice of a rooster or goat (in non-Brahminized shrines), and distribution of prasadam (sesame balls).
Poleramma's worship is typical of gram-devata practice:
The pujāri is usually from the local community — not Brahmin — and inherits the role through patrilineal succession. In Tamil Nadu she/he may be a Pāṭṭi or Pūjāri. In Maharashtra a Guravu. In Telangana-Andhra a Pāmula or Kurumbapu. In Kerala a Kaṇiyar. These are not shortcomings of the tradition — they are the tradition. The priest knows the god personally.
Documentation of this shrine and tradition comes from:
Gram-devatas are the real lived religion of 900+ million rural Indians. They are older than pan-Indic Hinduism, older than Vedic Sanskrit; many predate recorded history. When we catalog only the textual-Brahmin gods, we miss the majority of how Indians have actually worshipped for most of Indian history. This entry is part of a long-term effort to map the unmapped sacred geography of India.
