Amman

Amman

The village "Mother" of the Tamil country

Amman (Tamil: அம்மன்) is not one goddess but a title — literally "Mother" — carried by a whole family of village goddesses across Tamil Nadu and the Konkani districts of Kerala. To say a household is "Amman's house" (Ammāṉa veedu) names its deity, not a sect. The same word covers goddesses of very different temperament: some are mild and benevolent, others ferocious, demanding animal sacrifice and fiery rites. Both are Amman.

The most widespread named form is Māriyamman, the great rain goddess of the Tamil plains. Her name is commonly, and probably wrongly, traced to Tamil mari, "rain"; other etymologies connect it to fertility or to forest-shrub rather than rainfall, and priests and scholars disagree. What is not in dispute is her function: she grants rain, and therefore governs the agricultural year. Her pre-monsoon festival day is administered by Brahmins, a sharp contrast to the non-Brahmin festival calendar of most Amman shrines — a difference worth preserving rather than smoothing over.

Village Amman worship is intensely local and often not temple ritual at all. The shrine may be a small structure at the village edge; the kula-devatā is carried out on a decorated palanquin for the annual procession (thaam); and offerings cluster on particular weekdays — most often Tuesday and Friday, but the day differs from village to village and should be recorded from the local keeper rather than assumed. Standard offerings are rice, payasa or pongaḷ, kumkum and turmeric, coconut, jaggery, and, at many shrines, toddy. Goat, chicken and occasionally buffalo sacrifice remains practised in many Amman temples, though it has declined sharply in urban shrines and in temples attached to temple-management boards. That variation is regional, not a question of one "correct" practice.

The goddess's portfolio is kāval — guardianship. Village Ammans are credited with warding off epidemic disease, above all smallpox, as well as fire, wild animals and outside threat. In parts of Tamil country the Amman temple was the place people took refuge during an outbreak, and the deity's power was bound up with the health of the village. Many shrines also house or are flanked by Bhairava, Kāḷī or Bhadrakālī; the compound, not the central figure alone, is the object of devotion.

Sources and what is still unverified

• Robert Culp, Village Goddesses of South India (2007) is the standard ethnographic treatment of the Tamil village deity and the safest basis for the kāval and kula-devatā material above.
• The Cilappatikāram and Maṇimēkalai already listed in the frontmatter are epic texts. They are background, not evidence of present village practice, and should be read as literature.
• The "Mariamman folk songs" scripture entry in the frontmatter was not consulted in drafting and needs a named guardian to check it against a real edition.
• Unverified: the Māriyamman etymology, the name of her pre-monsoon festival day, and the weekday pattern of Amman pujas all vary by region. None should be presented as "the" Tamil practice without a local contributor.
• Nothing here extends to Karnataka, Andhra or the Sri Lankan Tamil communities, where Amman is also used but with different forms and festivals.