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The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 1 (of 2) cover

The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Chapter 71: Worship of Dântan Deo and Lalitâ.
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About This Book

A systematic survey of popular religious beliefs and folk traditions across northern India, tracing how nature spirits, village and heroic godlings, disease deities, and cults of the sainted and malevolent dead shape rural practice. The author compiles customs, legends, rituals and local cultic forms, highlights the assimilation of major deities with indigenous practices, and documents magical usages and everyday superstitions. Organized in thematic chapters, the study blends ethnographic observation with citations and examples to reveal patterns of worship, the roles of ritual specialists, and the social functions of these popular cults.

Worship of Dântan Deo and Lalitâ.

To the east of the Mirzapur District, there is a projecting mass of rock, which, looked at from a particular place, bears a rude resemblance to a hideous, grinning skull, with enormous teeth. This has come to be known as Dântan Deo or “the deity of the teeth,” and is carefully propitiated by people when they are sick or in trouble. Akin to this deity is Lalitâ, who is worshipped to the west of the Province. She is the sister of Kâlî, and brings bad dreams. Her speciality is her long teeth, and she has sometimes a curious way of blowing up or inflating the bodies of people who do not pay her due respect.