will not affect other children. In the agency areas, during epidemic season (Anturogala Kaalam) every night, villagers get together at one place and make loud noise by beating drums to frighten the spirits. In the fishermen community the belief of Bestas (a sub caste of fishermen) is that if they keep wooden dolls in the center of the house on the name of dead persons of their family Nookalamma won't enter their house. In some villages, once the epidemic subsides, Jatara will be celebrated. During the days of Jatara, coconuts, fowls, goats are offered to the goddess. A special cooling food made of ragi (millet, Elusine corocana) powder mixed in buttermilk brought from Golla's (pastoralist community) house and onions will be offered to the goddess. Later this cooling fond will be distributed among the devotees. On the last night of the Jatara a fire pit (Agnigimdam) will be arranged. Devotees, whoever got cured from the Atalamma, walk on the fire, showing their gratitude to the goddess. These devotees observe fasting for the whole day.
Turmeric mixed water will be sprinkled on the devotees in their fire walking.
Sometimes the devotees while walking on the fire pit go in to a trance; in order to keep them conscious, the observers sprinkle turmeric water on them.
fields. From the remote past, humans looked upon the earth as a personification of the deity of fertility. The fertility of the soil and that of women has been one of the salient features in agricultural societies in all times.
The great goddess everywhere is the ruler over the food that springs from the earth and all the usages connected with human's nourishment are subordinated to her. She is the goddess of agriculture whether its product is rice, corn or wheat, barley or any other fruit of the soil. The life producing mother was the central figure in reproduction in the human and animal world alike and then extended to the vegetable kingdom when mother earth became the womb in which crops were sown (Savitri, 1997). The concern with the fertility of the earth is repeated in the wide spread association of goddess worship with human fertility. Barren women in Europe, India, Africa and many other parts of the woild turn to female divinities to ask for aid in pregnancy. Here goddesses become a source of life so that the human community may be sustained (Elaide, 1987).
The fertility cults related to mother goddess are the oldest and longest surviving ingredients of the religions of the ancient world. In West Asia, one of the early centers called Catal hyuk, where agriculture developed, a figurine
of the great mother was found in a grain bin. The figure was placed in the grain bin obviously to promote the fertility of crops (Srivastav, 1979).
Throughout the world, earth was identified with women in all stages of culture. The fecundity of earth was taken to be equal to that of women. In Egypt, Isis, mother of heaven is identified fertility.
Regarding the fertility rites and beliefs of the ancient period, Bhattacharya (1977) in his work Tlie Indian mother goddess says that the early Vedic tribes whose material culture and social institutions have been reflected in the Rig Veda were predominantly supplemented by agricultural ritual of their neighboring tribes which were based on fertility beliefs. The adoption of the ritual of a particular group of people by another group is essentially connected with the social changes by the shifting tensions in the mode of food production.
Baron Omar Rolf Ehrenfels in his book TJw mother Right in India, says that the mother right element in India is stronger than in any part of the world. In the pre Vedic age mother right was in full Hedged from until the importance of male was recognized with the establishment of husbandry and domestication of flocks and herds.
According to Chottopadyaya (Lokayata) the initial stage of agricultural economy created the matriarchal conditions for the social supremacy of the female (cited in Srivastav, 1979).
The earth goddess is definitely associated with agriculture. In one of the seals discovered at Harappa, a nude female figure with legs apart and plant issuing from the womb, and on the other side there are men and women figures with a man holding a plough share or oblation spoon in one hand and in the other a clod of earth and the women in squatting posture before him with raised hands. This representation of earth goddess is related to vegetation. The clay figurines represented by a child suckling the figurines were kept in every house and streets of Mohenjodaro and Harappa. It symbolizes the nourishing or the feeding mother since a baby is being allowed to suckle milk from the breast. Creation is the duty of women. Only mother has the power to create and produce.
In north India Durga Puja is celebrated from the first to the ninth days of the bright half of the lunar month of Asvin, which coincides with the autumn harvest. It is thus clear that this ceremony is a harvest festival in which the Goddess is propitiated as the power of plant fertility (Dhanda, 2001).
In north coastal Andhra, the goddesses of fertility are worshipped in different ways. In the agency areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram agricultural deities are worshipped during the festivals of Kandikotha Panduga, MamidikothaPanduga, Sirasu Panditga.ln the East Godavari and parts of Visakhapatnam regions, Tholakah Jatara, Oodpula Panduga or Pasara Panduga are celebrated. In the agency of the Godavari region Pappu Panduga, Baddi Panduga, Boodamma Panduga are celebrated annually.