Published Paper Details:

Many Indian cultures nurture the belief that each phase of human life is controlled by a particular holy power. Disease is regarded as divine rebuke to be appeased with the redoubling of faith. To this end, various health-giving and destroying deities have manifested all over India. These are fierce goddesses, praised in folk stories and legends, and worshipped primarily by lower caste, Dalit, Bahujan and tribal communities who have been excluded from Vedic Hindu temples and rituals. It has proved the claim of Victor Turner and Arnold van Gennep that rituals arise and become popular at the time of disorder, uncertainty, and anxiety. The practice of religious rituals of different deities to prevent illness and disease has also been very prominent still in the 21 st century in the areas deprived of timely and advanced medical facilities as found in the different parts of West Bengal, India. In Bengal, many folk deities like Shitala, Olabibi, Ateshwar, Babathakur, Basalee, are worshipped to get rid of the diseases like smallpox, cholera, diarrhea, infertility. This dependency of the folk people on gods and goddesses to get relief from illness has shaped the cultural activities of the Bengalis as Ernesto de Martino defines culture as 'result of the victorious struggle of the health of the pitfalls of disease'.