Agents of the Godlings: An Ethnographic Account of Folk Hinduism in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract This article gives an ethnographic account of a folk Hindu belief surrounding a popular village deity in Junga, a tehsil in Shimla district in rural Himachal Pradesh. A complex sociocultural relationship involving a village deity, a symbolic princely state, religious specialists and devotees is analysed. The article argues that a supernatural being or a deity that appeals to the masses is marked by its accessibility and tangibility, which instils deep faith in devotees and makes supernatural a part of mundane life, and not only confined to the realm of the sacred, and this characteristic feature found in a village deity cult lends ebullience to folk Hinduism