KULA DEVATHA OR TUTELARY/FAMILY DEITIES:
ORIGIN AND CONCEPT
-Santhipriya-

1. Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity refers to male or female, God/Goddess, Sub or Demi god or Goddess, whom a family worshipped traditionally through generations. As per Vedic agamic rules, Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity is the first and foremost God to be offered worship in one’s home not only in general but especially during the festive functions, rituals and other important ceremonies conducted/performed at home. This practice has been followed over  generations by most of the families to whom their Kula Devatha was known.
2. The worship of Kula devatha was carried forward only by the male members of the family through generations; however, for the female members  the Kula Devatha get changed after their marriage, since she is separated from her parental home to enter into the home of their husband whose gothra becomes hers as is prescribed in the Vedic agamas; this custom which is followed over centuries. It is believed that Kula Devatha guide  and guard the family members from all hardships and hindrances faced  due to karmic deeds; the Kula Devatha believes to protect the family and the succeeding lineage / generations. Therefore, worship  of Kula Devatha should not be ignored  as it helps the  family lineage grow and take strong roots. The belief further goes that when we visit the Kula devatha temple, the souls  of our forefathers will be happy and bless us with good, prosperous and healthy life.
3. Over long period of time, I attempted to understand the concept of Tutelary/Family-deities, locally called Kulatheivam or Kula Devatha, and literally analysed the concept by speaking to several people, priests and common folks spread across the urban and rural areas where the practice and worship of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity is in practice.
4. After my retirement I extensively travelled in rural areas and visited several temples, where I spoke to many folks and priests to understand the concept or the origin of the practice. Wherever and whenever I attended religious functions, there too I talked to the purohitas (chaplain or family priest) and pundits to understand the concept out of curiosity.  There was specific reason for my curiosity as half in my life (Parental family), we were worshiping wrong deity as Kula Devatha and came to know of the deity worshipped by our ancestors much later, by mere accident, perhaps when we were destined to know it.
5. I also met few learned pundits, especially those in the temples, astrologers, elderly personnel and others who practiced the divinatory art of predicting future using cowries & other materials to cull out some information on this issue, since they were generally approached by folks whose Kula Devatha  was unknown to them. The views I received from them were divergent in nature. I received several interesting queries from several readers across the globe  on my earlier small articles posted in my Website (https://pages.santhipriya.com/) in Tamil  on Kula Devatha.  I attempted clarify many of the unanswered queries to some extent which must have  satisfied the readers, but at the same time, I did not leave my pursuit and continued my search to get some answers.
6. I was excited when two to three unknown elderly people spoke to me on telephone, complemented me for the information that I had provided on Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity and discussed certain other issues on the worship pattern and requested for further clarifications. They suggested that I publish the article in English for wider coverage to enable the younger generation too understand the fading ethos of worship of Kula Devatha unknown to them till then. There were numerous other callers too who complimented me on my articles on Kula Devatha.
7. I would like to briefly quote only two interesting interactions, which I had with two personalities-one a male and the other female member-  during my analysis. One gentleman from Tirunelveli district in the state of Tamilnadu, a convert to another religious sect, contacted me and after introducing himself, spoke to me at length on how his ancestors got converted into another religion, resulting in not knowing his family deity at all! As he was mentally disturbed due to certain family feuds and personal set backs, when he consulted some astrologers, they studied his horoscope and gave divergent views, but  all were firm only in one point-problem in his life was curse on account of non worship of his   Kula devatha.    Upon reading one of my articles on Kula Devatha, he said, he contacted me seeking clarity and advice on the worship of Kula Devatha and how to find out the unknown Kula Devatha.
8. Earlier some of his friends advised him to reach out to predictive astrologers or other or soothsayers to find out who his Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity was; some others suggested other means like approaching those who speak through mediums- spirits; but he ignored all their suggestion and contacted me.
9. From my experience I have found out that even experienced Astrologers, soothsayers and Nadi astrology (predicting with the finger print of left hand thumb impression) can not  exactly  predict the name and accurate place where one’s Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity resided; they can only broadly guide one, but can not pin pointedly tell either the name of the deity or  place of the temple where the deity -Kula Devatha- existed; but, the astrologers may not agree with me.  I am of the strong impression that even the  well experienced astrologer can only predict the Kula Devatha to be either male or female deity and further whether the female deity was Amman or Mariamman or Grama devatha provided they were expert in prediction; on the other hand,   only  elders in the lineage can throw light on the actual deity whom their ancestors worshipped as Kula Devatha.
10. With these convictions and some personal experience and knowledge in this matter, I discouraged the unknown stranger friend  from undertaking any such multi varied exercises and   instead first try to trace out his Kula Devata (family deity)  by asking elders in his  family, especially those on his father’s or mother’s side, as they may know which deity  their family worshipped. Also, look for temples in his ancestral village or places where family rituals like Mundan (hair shaving ceremony) or post-wedding ceremonies  were held. He took my advice in the right spirit and began searching for the relatives of his forefathers to find out their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity.
11. Few days later he contacted me again by phone to thank me and informed that he managed to get some information from one of the relatives from his forefather’s lineage to learn the name of the deity whom their forefathers worshipped. He was pleasantly surprised when he was told that the shrine of the deity whom his ancestors had worshipped lay just outside the compound wall of the same religious centre of their converted religion.
12. He was still amazed that he had   walked past the shrine many times, which was very small roadside shrine, touching the boundary wall of their new (converted) religious center.  His relative showed him the small structure inside which was seated a Mariamman group of deity (I have forgotten the name mentioned by him), who was worshipped by their ancestors and discontinued the worship after they got converted into the new religion for various social reasons which prevailed in those days.
13. His family deity was found seated inside the small  dilapidated brick structure touching the wall of the converted religious center. Once he got the full facts, he began to offer worship to the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity seated inside the brick structure in addition to offering worship in the converted religion which he could not abandon due to social reasons.
14. The gentleman confessed that after he began worshiping his Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity, he felt as if his mental agony began to recede and several of his family disputes which mentally bothered him started disappearing slowly. He sought some more clarification on Kula Devatha and again profusely thanked me for my advice. After few more days he contacted me again to tell that thereafter few of his family members too began offering worship to their original family deity. When I finally suggested that as token of his obeisance and prayer, he could start meeting the expenditure of oil meant for the oil lamp kept inside the shrine, he happily agreed to do it.
15. The second close interaction was with an unknown lady from Bangalore who  contacted me sometime in Feb 2019 by Email followed by telephonic call. After exchanging pleasantries, she spoke to me at length on the ordeals which she faced as if I was closely known to her for many years. She contacted me after reading my article on Kula Devatha. She mentioned that she could not offer worship to her unknown Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity since her husband was disinterested in finding the temple where her Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity – Goddess Tanjamma- was enshrined and sought my help to find out where the temple of Goddess Tanjamma existed. She gave me few hints on the deity as worshipped by her ancestors. However, she could only tell that some of her ancestors lived in and around Kanchipuram near Chennai in Tamilnadu. She attempted to find out whether any Tanjamma temple existed around Kanchipuram; but she failed to locate even one.
16. Since I was not an astrologer, I advised her to read my article on how to find out the Kuala Devatha as practiced for many years by our elders provided she believed in it. I wrote the article in my Website Santhipriya.com in 2018 (https://santhipriya.com/2018/04/ritual-to-find-out-the-tutelary-deity.html ).
17. She was eager to find out her Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity temple since some astrologers had indicated to her that discontinuing the family deity worship was the main reason for her current predicaments. She was suffering from terminal cancer and wanted to offer worship to her family deity before anything could happen to her. With the inputs I received I started searching for Tanjamma temples extensively and  could come up only with two or three places as the possible location of the temple. Still, the information was insufficient to locate the exact location of those two to three temples as they were in Andhra Pradesh. I failed to locate the site of Tanjamma.
18. Days passed and one day she suddenly rang me up to inform me that she did perform the ritual as written by me and she got clue of her Kula Devatha by mere luck. One of the Car repair works in Jayanagar showed signboard as Tanjamma repair works.  Out of curiosity when she interacted with the owner of the Car repair shop, she got some clue. Based on the clues from them and the name and places of three Tanjamma temples which I mentioned to her I published her story on the unknown deity Tanjamma in my website in the month of March, 2019 withholding her name and whereabouts I published her story in Tamil under the title ‘In search of Kulatheivam Family deity – a true story’ (Link  https://santhipriya.com/2019/03/tanjamma-kuladevathai.html)
19. Strangely after the story appeared in my website, there were few more callers seeking information on the very same Goddess Tanjamma who was their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity and the temples where the deity had been installed. They approached me because the details on those temples were not available in any of the web sites.
20. My interaction with some of the Tanjamma devotees revealed that the same deity in the same name was worshipped by different sects in two to three different other temples in faraway places. Each group or sects offered worship to the same deity in the same name, but only in the specific temples where their ancestors had offered worship.
21. However, with clues provided by one of them which I passed on to the lady, she said she succeeded in locating the place of her Kula Devatha which was in a remote place in a village called Athiyur, in Vellore near Kanchipuram. She said along with Tanjamma, a Grahma devatha called Selliamma was also there in the shrine.   The lady profusely thanked me for my effort.  For many days I did not contact her. However, after few months when I called her  to find out the address and photo of the deity, I was informed by her husband that she had passed away few weeks  I felt sad. Therefore, I  removed  her story published in my website in March, 2019.
22.I was thrilled to face many such interactions through mail, telephonic talk etc including calls from foreign countries who wanted some advice on their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities.
23. Since I continued to receive queries from many callers on how to find out the unknown Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity, based on the centuries old custom and practice which was not widely known to the folks, I published an article on how to find out the unknown Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity (Original link : https://santhipriya.com/2018/04/ritual-to-find-out-the-tutelary-deity) . However I updated the English version  in the year 2020 (Link:   https://santhipriya.com/2020/10/family-deity-kulatheivam-how-to-find-out.html  )
24.From the inputs I received, I came to know that many were benefited by my article and were able to trace their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity by this practice and thanked me for the article.
25. The unique experience compelled me to search for more material for this researched article. I began collecting information on:
How were the divines created?
(a) How did the concept of worship of the divines and worship of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity emerge?
(b) How were the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity adapted by families?
(c) Does specific ritual exist through which one can adapt newer Tutelary/Family deity or Kula Devatha?
(d) How could there be so many Tutelary/Family deity or Kula Devathas?
(e) The newer family deities when emerge as Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity, from where do they derive divine powers?
(f) Can one change their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity at will?
26. To those who contacted me, I promised to write a detailed article on the origin of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity covering all their queries to the best of my knowledge. As I mentioned in previous paras the inputs in my article were based on the discussions I had with various temple pundits, some persons of deeper spiritual mind, read in several sources, word of mouth stories which flowed through generations, heard in discourses, folk lores, discussions with few individual elders at various periods of time and other materials in web.
27. Lot of theories and debates float around the origin of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity. If one read several texts of Puranas and epics they can find the reference of divine worship during the Vedic period which led to the worship of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity.
28. As per the folk lore of Nalgheda temple in Shajapur district in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, on the advice of Lord Krishna, Yudhishthira, one of the Pandava brothers came to Bagalakmukhi Devi temple in Nalgheda and offered prayers to the Devi for victory in the Mahabharata war. Lord Krishna reportedly told Pandava brothers that Goddess Bagalakmukhi Devi was their family deity (Read the story of the devi in link: https://santhipriya.com/2012/05/ujjain-bagalamuki-temple.html) which confirms that the worship of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity existed even during the period the Mahabharata war was enacted. Mahabharata war may have occurred sometime between 3500 years or 7000 years .
29. Reading the texts of epics, Puranas and other scriptures, it is evident that the concept of divine worship including the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity did exist during the vedic period. For example, there are references to Brahmins in ancient texts such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatam, Rig Veda and Bhavishya Puranas. One sect in the Brahmins who were predominant in the vedic period were Saraswat Brahmins who resided in the banks of River Saraswathi. Those Saraswat Brahmins are known to belong to Gothra of the seven Rishis first created by Brahma. Traditionally it is said that each Kula or descendants of a family belong to a distinctive Gothra, each Gothra representing one of the seven Saptha Rishis. The Saraswat Brahmins who perhaps have ten Gothra in the name of ten Maharishis have the long history and conventional practice of worshiping eight specific Kula Devadas, which further indicates that the concept of Kula Devatha worship prevailed even in vedic period. This will clarify how  the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity  were adapted by families. There are several historical stories on Saraswat Brahmins to prove this point.
30. The practice of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity worship surfaced beginning from vedic period when there were no castes or religion and everyone alike worshipped the same form of divines. In the greatest epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata too there was no reference on castes and religion like Hindus, non-Hindus, but only human divide classifying the society into four varnas or classes – based on their capabilities to perform certain functions.
31. What exactly is a deity or divine? It is a supernatural being in some form or appearance, possessed with supernatural divine powers who is worshipped by people, who believe that it controls or exerts force over all aspects of the world. While in Hinduism, the deity is referred as Devatha, the Europeans coined it as Deity which is a Latin word- Deus, meaning God. ‘Deva’ in Sanskrit too refers to divine and ‘Kula’, the sect or generation.
32.The Hindu theistic believe in various paths of worship like henotheism (belief in single supreme God without disputing existence of other divine forces), monotheism (believe that only one supreme God exist), polytheism (belief in pantheon of divines, both male and female), panentheism (belief that divine exists everywhere in the universe, accessible to everyone), or monism (Only one God which is masculine and eternal) for spiritual enlightenment and to safeguard families for progress in life. The worship of Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity concept comes under Polytheism and Pantheism. Kula devatha is specific deity for each family.
33. Several centuries onwards every family/sect/lineage/generation had their own chosen deity of either male of female divine forms. For generations each family tree worshipped a specific deity and thus it became their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity; there was always a bond between the family and the specific deity and hence it became custom for the family members to always offer prayers to the specific deity in the name of  Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity immediately after invoking Lord Ganesha, who is the prime divine, the remover of obstacles. In any rituals or ceremonies,  prayers to  divines in the ritual or ceremony follows only after Lord Ganesha is invoked and offering prayers to Kula Devatha. The ceremonies begin subsequently. The head of each family used to be referred as ‘Glue of the family’  and who hold the family together to maintain strong bonds between family members.
34. There goes belief that any function, ceremonies, rituals or poojas performed will give no fruitful result unless the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity is invoked or worshipped immediately after invoking Lord Ganesha.
35. Most of the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity temples are normally found in the family’s ancestral village/towns because several hundred years ago most of the folks lived in the villages as a cluster group or settled together along with their relatives around. Those places used to be called as Agraharams by the Brahmins community.
36. Similarly in each state in India there are localities or settlements where certain castes or communities historically settle together, forming distinct neighborhoods that serve similar purposes as Agraharams, focusing on community life and sharing cultural practices. Each families had their  own Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity and temples in village level. The specific deity worshipped by them as a Kula Devatha varied depending on the lineage and their traditions.
37. In the Vedic period the father was head of each family and none reversed his dictum nor felt ashamed of toeing their father’s line. It was priority to maintain the togetherness of the families, and those family members who disrespected or revolted against the unity of the family were either discarded or condemned by other family members. In the past, everyone in the family-right from grand parents  to great grandson- lived under the same roof, or if the members were more and could not live in a small house, some of the family members along with their kids lived in nearby neighborhood so that on occasions of important events all of them could join together and celebrate  the function as one unified family. What the practice prevailed then was that after the demise of father, either his wife or the first son in that family automatically gained the status of family head.
38. From the great, great grandfather to the youngest great grandson in the lineage, everyone worshipped  specific deity in a specific temple of their village/city which became their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity. On  important occasions all of them together went to the temple and worshiped their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity. The practice  continued in each of the family clans through the lineage members. This is how the concept of worshiping the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity of the first generation flew down amongst the members of their families.
39. The majority of present-day folks lived in remote villages along with their family members in cluster groups, because most of them were engaged either in the agricultural activities or as laborers or in the profession such as priests or pundits attending to the rituals and functions performed by Kingdoms in various areas.
40. In those era, none of the townships were well developed, hence, the  villages consisted of clusters of various castes and creed; however, everyone lived as a group in their region and together participated in each one of the functions or rituals held in their villages.
41. In the initial era when the settlements in remote villages appeared, each one of the family members began to  show respect  to some  stones erected on the spots where dead pet animals were buried, spots where those died in the families  were buried  or spots where strange noises were made by different animals or birds. They were thought to be wandering unknown souls. Over the years the stones erected on them became unknown divine to offer
42. Years further rolled on, the folks began to erect different shaped stones or stones carved into some images by artisan in their village on those spots which began to be considered sacred places. Thus, the concept of giving some forms of appearance to the stones surfaced, which subsequently began to be called as deities and offer of worship began. Over several years subsequently, those sacred places became their worship places and the images carved out on the stones or statues installed there became Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity or as their Ishta Devatha for worship.
43. This is how the unknown places and spots in the villages turned into places of worship, where carved out imaged stones or statues made of clay or mud installed named as guardian or village deities, housed either in the open space without roof or under roof covered with woven fronds of either coconut trees or palm trees.
44. In the above background, it is safe to assume that the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity concept emerged from the worship of deities whose numerous idols and statues were found erected in the villages and venerated as part of the folk tradition in villages. One cannot find even one village without a statue of some deities addressed in many names, few among them as Aiyanar, Muneswaran, Karuppaswamy, and various forms of Amman (goddesses) like Mariamman, Renuga Devi, Ellamma, and Pachai Amman, Pothuraju, Sastha,   Gangamma, Polamma, and Sunkalamma, Shastha, Kathavarayan, sapthakanniga, Maheswaramma, Pidariyamman, Maha Kali etc etc. The list has numerous such names.
45. The names vary between south and north India where the Mariamman is called as Seethalamma. To my knowledge in north India, the concept of Kula Devatha does not exist and they offer prayers in the name of  Ishta Devatha or Grama Devatha.  The specific deities whom the North Indians worship, are often tied to their caste, community, or geographical region.
46. Those deities may not be as formally recognized as Kula Devathas, but perform roles in terms of familial and community identity. However Common Kula Devatas in North India include  incarnations of goddess Parvati called by different names, Lord Shiva, Snake gods and goddesses, Durga, Kali, Hanuman, Krishna, and various other deities .
47. This is the prime reason why most of the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity of one’s generation is found in one’s ancestral village. It is also interesting to note that out of those deities, over 90 % were Village guardian or deities- which were either second or third line of divines in the hierarchy of divines. Different divisions of divines are explained  in one of the later paras.  
48. Over period of time, as migration from villages to towns began, the members of those families who relocated their place of stay to newer places used to visited their native villages whenever possible and continued offering prayers to their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity in their ancestral home land.
49.The elders always maintained that without the blessings of ones’ Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity, nothing good will happen in the family, even if they offered prayers to any one of the Ishta Devathas (favorite god) or the Gurus {Head of the mutt (monastery)} to which the family is attached.
50. It was custom to the families in south India who for some reason or the other did not know their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity, adopted either Lord Vaidyanathaswamy of Vaitheeswaran temple or Lord Venkatachalapathi of Tirupathi as their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity.
51. Their belief stemmed from the fact that Lord Venkateswara, an aspect of Vishnu is encompassed with the power of Trimurtis – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva -besides the power of Shakthi, the female divine energy of ‘Supreme’ and he appears in whatever form the devotees may want to worship and therefore is the root of all divines, quite possibly their Kula Devatha too would be one amongst them.
52. Similar is the case of Lord Vaitheeswaran, who is Shiva in the form of a Shiva Ling. The Shiva Ling is believed to be embodiment of Shiva and Sakthi – One half of Shiva Ling is supposed to be the male divine energy of ‘Supreme’ who created the cosmic and the other half is that of Shakthi- both embodiment of all divines. Brahma and Vishnu are seated below holding them over their head- Shiva Sakthi.
53. One cannot abruptly change their Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity or choose another at will abandoning what their forefathers had worshipped through generations. Only by the act of nature, the worship of the specific Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity chain gets broken midway when the lineages had no male members or no children at all or some had only female children in the lineages. See chart attached below to understand it.

54. The worship of Kuladevatha/Tutelary deities continues in a family through male members only. Since the female gets married and goes to another house her gothra changes to that of their husbands; her Kula Devatha also becomes another deity worshipped by her husband’s family, putting an end to the worship of her parental Kuladevatha.
55. This is illustrated by the example shown in the picture below. For example, let us assume that Mariamman is the Kuladevatha/Tutelary deity to six families- all different groups.
(a) Family No -1: Mariamman continues to be worshipped as Kuladevatha/Tutelary deity, provided the first generation bore male members as children.    However, if the first-generation member has no children, or he has demised, or he gets only female children, then Mariamman cease to be Kula Devatha with the demise of first-generation member itself. Mariamman will remain Kula Devatha for the female members up to sixth generation, however, till they remain unmarried only. The moment they get married, their Kula Devatha changes to that of their husband’ side.
(b) Family No -2: Same logic as above. Mariamman remain Kula Devatha even after sixth generation member and will continue to 7th, 8th 9th and so on provided they bore male children in that generation.
(c) Family No -3: Mariamman remain Kula Devatha even for fourth generation and will continue to 7th, 8th 9th and so on provided they bore male children in that generation. Otherwise, in the family tree of No 3, Mariamman worship as Kula Devatha cease to exist with the demise of fourth generation member.
(d) Family No -4: Mariamman remain Kula Devatha for fifth and sixth generation members and will continue to 7th, 8th 9th and so on provided they bore male children in that generation. Otherwise, in the family tree of No 4, Mariamman worship as Kula Devatha cease to exist with the demise of the fifth and sixth generation members.
(e) Family No -5: Mariamman remain Kula Devatha even after sixth generation member and will continue to 7th, 8th 9th and so on provided they bore male children in that generation.
(f) Family No -6: Mariamman worship as Kula Devatha breaks from the first generation itself (one by one in the family tree) as soon as  the female members in the family tree of No 6 gets married.
56. As already indicated earlier, the Kula Devatha worship has not started in recent centuries, but was five to seven thousand years old. Now let us see how the deities got some kind of form or appearance. To understand this, we need to go from the stage of creation of cosmic in brief. Unfortunately, the principle and canon of creation flew through word-of-mouth stories or stories as found in vedic puranas and Itihasas, which  are stories that tells about what happened in the past in the land of India. They were all carried forward to reach the people  by the preachers and teachers, or transcripts from spiritual masters, lectures of seers and sages etc including divine prophets and messengers over the past several thousands of years.
57. They were carried forward by word-of-mouth stories only because major texts of original Rig Veda and other important puranic texts of pre and post Vedic period, reportedly kept scribbled on palm tree leaves remained untraceable till date or believed to have been destroyed by nature, so opine the spiritual masters. Hence many of the texts of Vedic period remained as word-of-mouth stories. However, since the same texts have also been reportedly preached to the divine sages by the divines themselves on many occasions, they may have got percolated to the folks of the land by word-of-mouth stories and teachings.
58. Some of the spiritual organizations such as Brahmakumari Samaj, Gayathri Parivar, Dattathreya Parivar, Digambara and life stories of several Seers, Sadhus and Sannyasins hold these views strongly. It is also reportedly mentioned in a text called ‘Rahasya Sthuthi’ meaning secret doctrine, that the principle and canon of creation has been narrated by Lord Vishnu himself to Sage Narada, but unfortunately the same text is also not available and floats only by word-of-mouth stories and folk tales.
59. According to the Puranic texts and beliefs, ever pervading ‘Supreme’, unknown, invisible super power, when decided to create Cosmic, produced out of his own body, a land consisting of water and in that he threw some seed (the seed referring to creation) which turned in to be a Golden Egg. After carefully analysing all aspects for over a year** , he broke the Egg into two pieces to convert them as Earth and Heaven and in between them kept empty space referring it as Aakasa (Ref: Manusmrithi Verses 1.8 to 1.13).
60. In Tripura Ragasya in Chapter 22 the origin of the universe has been described briefly. It states that The Supreme who was ‘she’ alone manifested vast cosmic followed by the release of three aspects of energies called Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. In the form of Brahma, he manifested cores and crores of creatures with several aspects which included the static and non static beings and humans- several with female and male energies.  In the form of Vishnu, he began to protect what Brahma has created. In the form of Rudra, he himself becomes destroyer of those evils from the endless ones created by Brahma and protected by Vishnu.
61. The act of releasing the Cosmic through an egg by the Supreme is perhaps what is described by the scientists as Big Bang Theory. If we believe the Big Bang theory, Cosmic or the Universe was created before 13.7 or 13.8 billion years while the Vedic scientists believe that it may have been much older than believed in the Big Bang theory. Whatever it be, the evolution have been gradual in the cosmic and it took billions of years to convert the space manifested by the ‘Supreme’ into livable land.
62. What was the condition of the earth when the land emerged from ‘Supreme’ and how was it activated? The most accepted Big Bang theory is the leading explanation for how the universe began. It says that the universe as we know it today started with an ‘infinitely hot and dense single point’ that inflated and stretched.
63. The ‘infinitely hot and dense single point’ referred to by the Big Bang theory might have been Sun who may have been released by ‘Supreme’ along with the Cosmic, but to remain in invisible form. Most scientists agree that the atmosphere and the ocean accumulated gradually over millions and millions of years with the continual degassing of the earth’s interior surface which was found filled with complete gas and which was water.
64. According to the theory floated by the scientists, the universe of the present day has developed in four to five stages from the time the cosmic was created. Initially when the cosmic was created, it was filled with densely covered dust particles blocking visibility, filled with gas, molten rocks, and appeared completely dark without any light. Slowly over the years as the dust particles settled down, universe began to receive some form of light freed of darkness and the land began to expand. The scientists pointed out that around 4.5 billion years ago, no liquid water was present anywhere on Earth. The Earth was so hot that the rocks were molten (they were liquid).
65. Scientists opined that the water was present in the form of gas until the Earth cooled down, the water vapor condensed and rained back onto the surface of the Earth for millions of years which turned into ocean. Spiritually speaking the earth may have been cooled off by the invisible Moon and  Vayu who may have also been released by ‘Supreme’ while Sun was released as they were responsible for the nature’s act. As the water drained into the great hollows in the Earth’s surface, the primeval ocean came into existence to become a huge ocean on land in the universe. The one who caused the rain, thunder and lightening in the form of volcanic eruptions was again the invisible Lord  Varuna who would have also been created by ‘Supreme’. In addition to  Sun, Moon, Varuna and Vayu, one other created by ‘Supreme’ may have been Lord Indira who controlled the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows etc as leader of heaven in tandem with other Lords. But all their acts may have  remained in the background only for the purpose of molding the earth released by ‘Supreme’.
66. ‘Supreme’ was well aware that it would take several billions of years to get the Land and Ocean ready in place to make them livable as the Earth and the Ocean (water) were the most needed planes for the humans or the creatures to live and survive. Hence after the Earth was brought out from inside the body of invisible ‘Supreme’, next most important need was creation of Ocean (water) and few important divines which controlled the nature. Hence   invisible Lords like Sun, Moon, Varuna and Vayu along with Lord Indira may have been released by him till the land and ocean were  made ready and then they may have been absorbed back by the Supreme to manifest afresh through prime divines.
67. The scientific revelations support the theory that it has taken more than 13 billion years for the Earth and Ocean to settle down in the manner stated in pre paras to accommodate the living beings and hence ‘Supreme’ waited that long for the release of divines and other creatures. According to scientific studies 55 to 60 million years ago initial souls released by Brahma  may have taken the shape of the primates which were in the form of  15-20 species from which some kind of human forms surfaced six to eight million years ago.

68. The spiritual masters believe that the earth consisting of vast sea and moving plane called Land imbibed with the qualities of four Yugas were actually lying inactive within the energies of ‘Supreme’ and they were brought out by ‘Supreme’ and activated before he began the creation through Brahma. The scientists support this belief when they say “For something to exist, there must be material or a component available, and for them (material or component) to be available, there must be something else available. Where did the material come from that created the Big Bang, and what happened in the first instance to create that material?” (Ref: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220105-what-existed-before-the-big-bang). The unanswered question to scientists ‘where did the material come from that created the Big Bang’ points out spiritually to invisible ‘Supreme’.
69. The universe churns into four yugas and ends at the end of the fourth when the Supreme annihilates everything by means of deluge and recreates everything afresh. In puranas though the Supreme is stated as ‘He’ and in some as ‘She and ‘he’, the basic manifestation of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra have not been disputed greatly.
70. One may tend ask as to why we should discuss about the creation of Cosmic as our subject matter is Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities. Unless a portion of the aspects of creation is read and understood, the appearance and role of  divines who had manifested from whom several divines including Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities manifested before the humans appeared would have remained unknown.
71. After the Cosmic with Earth and Ocean were created by ‘Supreme’, it may have taken something like 13.699 billion years for the universe to expand and expand to get ready with vital aspects like water in the Ocean, rivers and light to accommodate the souls of floating, movable – immovable subjects, male and female souls  and all other species of several types.
72. Therefore, the Pundits opined that ‘Supreme’ may have utilized the period of something like 13.699 billion years to create various divines forces from his divine energies and shaped them with the help of Divine Shilpi Vishwakarma who was seated inside the body of ‘Supreme’.
73. The land and ocean was released by the Supreme and both were shaped to accommodate the humans after several billion years later. The Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities therefore did not manifest immediately after the cosmic was released by ‘Supreme’ since  the land was not made ready to accommodate the humans and Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities were needed only to guide and guard families in area specific assigned to them; hence, prime divines from whom the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities came out were delayed by millions of years after cosmic was born.
74. The second reason for non manifestation of the family /tutelary deities immediately after the divines were created after the land and ocean were made ready was to give ‘Supreme’ sufficient time to work out the shape and appearances of several thousands of  divines needed, which he planned to get only through the first three prime divines.
75. Once the three male energies took the forms of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra  who was also known as Siva, three female energies too came out and took the roles in the name of Parvathi, Saraswathi and Mahalakshmi. The three male energies and three female energies then joined together as Shiva -Parvathi,  Brahma-Saraswathi and Vishnu-Lakshmi. In order to protect the universe, the Supreme manifested several energies through those three pairs of divines in different periods of time which took  several forms and called  divines in the vast  land manifested.
76. The three pairs of divines which manifested released several divines from their energies. Those divines emerged began to release several divine energies which turned out to demi gods, celestials and innumerable divine elements in the name of guardian divines for lands, protector for clusters of humans and  in several other names. In how many years after the cosmic was created, all these developments took place?
77. There are conflicting views on who manifested first to release several divines including demi, semi gods, celestials and spirits many of which turned into Kuladevatha/Family/Tutelary deities several centuries later. etc.
(a)The Shaivites say that Lord Shiva is supreme from whom the other two divines emerged. (Ref: Linga Purana, Chapter-3)
(b)The Vaishnavites say that Lord Vishnu appeared first from whom the other two divines emerged. (Ref: Narayana Suktham of Yajur Veda and Narayana Upanishad)
(c) The third view has been that Lord Brahma appeared first from the Cosmic Egg broke by ‘Supreme’ after which the other two divines emerged.
(d) The fourth view –Shaktism- says that matter came first as the Goddess, and from her came the mind, releasing three male forms: Brahma, the priest; Vishnu, the king; Shiva, the ascetic (Ref: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Purana and Tantric purana texts)
78. Whatever is said and believed, the basic fact that the three main male divines emerged from ‘Supreme’ were Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma and from them only came several other divines from whom came  Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities much later in stages.
79. Thus, the Supreme created several layers of divines in the following order:
(a) First line of divines- Prime divines manifested like Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra (Siva), Parvathi, Saraswathi and Mahalakshmi. It is Claimed that Brahma was released from the divine energies of Vishnu. It is also claimed that even Saraswathi and Mahalakshmi were incarnates of Parvathi only.
(b) Second line of divines: Several incarnations of Shiva, Vishnu and Parvathi. Other three like  Mahalakshmi,  Brahma and Saraswathi did not release any other divines from them. Only Mahalakshmi has taken different incarnations of her own, but did not release and sub divines from her energies, because she herself emerged from the divine energies of Parvathi and hence, any release of divines from her goes into the act of Parvathi only.
(c) Third line of divines: Village deities, several divines released by the incarnates of second line of divines and even from fewer first line of divines especially during the war waged against evil forces.
(d) Fourth line of divines such as smaller village deities, guardian deities, good spirits and good bootha ganas.
(e) Fifth line of deities such as Yoginis and Mohinis to help tantra worship, meant for certain sadhanas, sadhus and sannyasins who desired to heighten their spiritual knowledge.

80. Why were only four divines – Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, and Goddess Parvathi authorised to release the sub divines- semi, demi divines- which included the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/ Family deities? The acts and tasks of the Prime divines which were Creation, Guarding & guiding and Destruction, are comparable to that of a production unit where the goods were manufactured by one group, another group is engaged in the scrutiny to separate good and rejects and the last group segregates them for remolding or get them destroyed, thus keeping the cycle of ongoing manufacturing process moving continuously.
81. Like how the students and teachers cannot be the same, Brahma the creator of all kinds of creatures in the universe and his consort Saraswathy were not authorised to release any sub divines from their body. Therefore, Brahma engaged himself in the task of only releasing different kinds of souls meant to take shape as creatures and humans  with cycles of birth-death and rebirth, static and non static beings etc for  different parts of the universe. He performed this act with the knowledge gained from Saraswathi who was authority to  the power of wisdom and knowledge. Remember, Brahma created only souls and sent them to vast land to take birth as creatures and humans.  This aspect is explained in later paras.
82. Once the Supreme created the universe, made ready vast land, ocean he engaged divines to create, protect and for destruction.    Big task lay before Vishnu  how to protect and guide the creations  like a teacher to drive into the path of discipline and honesty so that there could peace and prosperity in the vast land for long period of time.   This is where the concept of Kula Devatha or Tutelary /Family deities emerged.
83. Brahma’s creations were mixed bag of good and evil minded besides Asuric (demonic) forces. Due to their inborn qualities of evilness, naturally the evil souls would refuse to mend their ways easily and similarly the Asuric forces would continue to terrorize the folks of the land before getting eliminated from the universe.
84. Hence while at one end to guide and guard the folks, a fleet of divines were necessary, on the other end the evils need to be identified and put them under punishment under the long process of divine law. This became the responsibility of several divines in the 3rd, 4th and 5th line of divines to be generated much later. Many of them turned out to be Kuladevatha/Family/Tutelary deities much later.
85. Unless those who are born meet death, there would be no space available to accommodate additional creations or even the existing creations. Since Shiva alone cannot perform the act in the vast universe, he has to perform this act with the help of few divines created or authorized by him and his counterpart Parvathi. Many of them in this too turned out to be Kuladevatha/Family/Tutelary deities much later.
86. Act of destruction is of two kinds. Physical elimination and removal of Ignorance to bestow wisdom and tread the path of spirituality to get freed of sins. In the act of physical elimination, Shiva ensured that the act was carried out by one of the energies released through him, in the name of Yama.
87. Shiva and Parvathi– released several semis, demi divine forces from their divine energies to fight and destroy evil forces on the vast land and to remain warrior divines such as Mahishasura Mardini, Lalithambigai, Maha Kali,  Nava Durga Devis, Dasa Mahavidya Devis, and Mariamman etc. Many of the divines thus released by the duo become Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity much later.
88. Whenever the Asura (Demonic) forces surfaced, Shiva either released several divine forces from him to engage and destroy the evil forces from the universe or he transferred his divine energies to other divines to destroy the evil and Asuric forces on his behalf. Many of the divines released by him include important divines such as Muruga, 64 Bhairava and Bhairavis, Veerabhadra, Sharabha, Ashwathama etc. Some of them too became Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deity.
89. It will be interesting to know that entire divines released by Shiva did not become Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities. They were meant to bestow wisdom to remove ignorance of folks such as  Muruga in different manifestations,   Dakshinamoorthi, Bhairava   However, an important deity created by Shiva was Lord Vaitheeswaran who  became the Kula Devatha or Tutelary/Family deities for many folks besides those whose family deities were not known to them.
90. This is how broadly the divines appeared along with divines which turned into Kula Devatha after several thousands of years. As previously said huge fleet of divines became necessary to guide and guard the folks on the vast land. They will have to be segregated into several groups to place under huge lots of divines to be created. Areas will have to be earmarked for each divine so that there is no clash of interests among them.
91. Once the broad-based principle on creation of divines were worked out by the Supreme next bigger question was creation of humans for whom the divines were needed.
92. Supreme while creating the vast land and ocean fixed in the mind of Brahma, the initial land size and ultimate size of land and no of souls which can take birth in different appearances and forms, how the souls will generate souls after souls  and how all of them get destroyed after specific no of souls get created. Supreme also laid down how many divines of different  natures are to appear, what will be their form and appearance  in the vast land so that the souls which gets converted as human or other creatures can be guided and guarded and destroyed from time to time.

……….93 continued
References to all these points in last part