Salem Meiyanur Mariamman Temple Worship and People's Faith

Abstract

All living beings in the world live depending on nature, likewise earlier man also led a life in harmony with nature. Nature appeared as an enigma to man. Natural objects such as thunder, lightning, rain, flood, volcano, darkness and sun are mysterious and it instilled fear among man. Man, who fears about nature and its disasters starts worshiping them as gods. The worship that appeared in this way is based on faith and is common to all human beings. Even today people follow some rituals to preserve the cultural heritage of a country or race. Today, worship is a necessity of the political background and reflects as a part of the society. Rituals are used to symbolize a culture. Since these rituals are mostly followed in villages. People go to temple to worship God and to seek His blessings. There are many methods to be followed in organizing a temple but most of the minor deity temples are worshiped without building structure considering trees and black stones as their deities. The purpose of this article is to investigate the location of Meiyanur Mariamman Temple which is located in Salem district, the structure of the temple, about the deities located in the temple, the ceremonies held for the deities and the beliefs people have on the deities, and the debts which they pay to deities if their faith is fulfilled.