[Advaita-l] Anya Devata

[Satish Arigela]

>These kind of minor divinities are called bhutas -- not evil but >annoying if 
>not appeased.  (bhuta is often >translated as "ghost" but this is innacurate.)  
>It is in this context that Shankaracharya explains bhuta as:


>bhutAni vinAyakamAtrugaNAchaturbhaginyAdIni

>"The bhutas are Vinayakas, the hosts of Matrs, and the four sisters etc."
>Who are these Vinayakas? they are the spirits of hindrance.  Ganesh  Bhagavan is 
>called Vinayaka because >he is their leader and controller.  Similiarly Rudra is 
>the chief of the 11 (or 8) Rudras and Aditya is  foremost of >the 12 solar Gods 
>called Adityas.


Going by above, vinAyaka of-course refers to gaNesha.


>Matragana: the worship of saptamatrka or shodashamatrka is still prevalent to 
>this day.  They are often >propitiated at weddings so that the bride will not be 
>barren etc.

Some names of the mAtR^ika-s might interest the person who posed this question.  
Like for example vaiShNavI, nArasiMhI, vArAhI etc. Since the number mentioned is 
16, technically they could be referring to both sapta mAtR^ika-s and/or the 
skanda mAtR^ika-s.

>Chaturbhagini "the four sisters" is still a mystery to me.  In the last thread 
>Vidyashankara said it was a >Buddhist Tantric upasana.

chaturbhagini refers to the worship of tumburu rudra with his four sisters. Not 
tumburu the divine singer.

This is a manifestation of rudra.

This tumburu rudra is four faced with three eyes in each etc and around him are 
seated the four sisters. Their names being jaya vijaya, ajita and aparAjita who 
are worshiped with their own bIjakShara-s etc

yogavAshiShTha also has a reference to this. This stream of shaiva tantra-s 
associated with his worship is called the vAma srotas and is so called because 
it emanates from the vAmadeva mukha(called umA vaktra alternately) of sadAshiva. 
This should not be confused with vAmAchAra but it does have some elements of 
vAmAchAra rituals. But a smArta brAhmaNa who follows the rituals of this stream 
will of-course do so by editing out those objectionable vAmA elements just like 
they do in the case of shrIvidyA which has similar vAmA-kaula origins.