MARIAMMAN

A mother goddess. The Tamil word mari means death but when the letter a in it is accented, the word changes to mean rain. She is the most ancient and popular deity among the village deities of Salem and is worshipped under several other names such as Amman, Atthu, Ayam Ayee (Mother) Dharmapuri (Mari with army) Magamayee ( Great Mother) and Vadivattha ( Beautiful Mother) all indicating an ancient form of ancestral mother worship Iconographically, Mari represented in a sitting posture with four bands. They hold a drum, a trident a bundle if ropes and a skull.Mari Amman rules over discuses that bring death, especially small pox. At times of small-pox incidence, the leaves of the neem tree (netta azadirachia) sacred to the goddess, are spread on the bed of the afflicted person and a bunch of them tied in the entrance of the patients house indicating the presence of thegoddess. In the benevolent aspect, the goddess brings rainy to put an end to the diseases which result from the heat.She is believed to cure a variety of illness of those who offer silver sheet metal models of their affected organs. This type of prayer is commonly found in almost all Mari Amman temples in Salem.Almostevery village has a temple or shrine dedicated to her which is the focus of village festivals. Major temples are relatively large and may or may not be surrounded by compound walls. Annual festivals in early or late summer usually last for several days. The festival begins with the planting of a stump of a neem tree, 6 tall and with three prongs at the top; A new mud pot containingsanctified water is placed among the prongs, Devotees offer her pongal ( ritual cooking) sacrificed goats and roosters in the temple yard.Some devotees walk bare feet on burning coals and pierce their bodies with pins and knives.Walking on burning coals is an ancient custom practiced in honour of mother goddess. These self-inflicted in honor of mother goddess. These self-inflicted painful fistulas were prohibited during the British rule as they werethought to be injurious to health ofthe devotees. On the last day of the festival, a procession of floats is held, each float depicting a legendary scene. Fireworks conclude the festivities.This Dravidian goddess is one of the widely revered goddess of the ancient world. Under many variants of her name, She was Marrattu ( Mari Attha) to the Chaldeans,March to the Jews, Mary to the Christians. She was also the goddess of the eye of truth and judgment. Compare "ayin" which was the "eye" in the Hebrew sacred alphabet. Possibly derived from aya. The babylonian creatress. Aya in tamil means mother and Mari Amman is popularly known as Mari Aya. In Syria she was known as the goddess Mari whose huge eyes searched men"s souls. As death giver she was Mariamman, Miriam, and Mara an exceedingly ancient name of the goddess as death-bringer. The name and its variants are found from India to Northern Europe.