Note 2 — Chapter II · THE HEROIC AND VILLAGE GODLINGS.

This process is actually still going on before our eyes. Thus, the familiar Gor Bâba, a deified ghost of the aboriginal races, has in many places become a new manifestation of Siva, as Goreswara. Similarly, the powerful and malignant goddesses, who were by ruder tribes propitiated with the sacrifice of a buffalo or a goat, have been annexed to Brâhmanism as two of the numerous forms of Durgâ Devî, by the transparent fiction of a Bhainsâsurî or Kâlî Devî. In the case of the former her origin is clearly proved by the fact that she is regarded as a sort of tribal deity of the mixed tribe of Kânhpuriya Râjputs in Oudh. Similarly Mahâmâî, or the “Great Mother,” a distinctively aboriginal goddess whose shrine consists of a low flat mound of earth with seven knobs of coloured clay at the head or west side, has been promoted into the higher pantheon as Jagadambâ Devî, or “Mother of the World.” Her shrine is still a simple flat mound of earth with seven knobs at the top, and a flag in front to the east.2 More extended analysis will probably show that the obligations of Brâhmanism to the local cultus are much greater than is commonly supposed.