OBLATIONS or offerings have always formed an essential part of public worship and private piety.. Jeremiah xliv. 17 says, To burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her.' The Hindus pour out water to the sun three times a day, and to the moon at the time of worshipping this planet. Hindus have many deities and spirits to which they make oblations.
Amongst Hindus, kula means a family, a race, a tribe. Properly the got of a Hindu is his tribe, and kula is the race. But kula among the Rajputs means a tribe, and corresponds to the Afghan khel. Amongst the Hindus there are three kinds of devata or deities to whom worship is given,—the Gramma-deva, or village god ; the Kula-deva, the race, household, or family god ; and the Ista-deva, the patron or personal deity of individuals. Adi-deva is the primitive deity ; tilt= - deva, local deity. The Aryan Hindu does not recognise the village gods of Southern India, but the non-Hindu Turanian races Largely worship them, and even many of those Turanian races who have been converted to Hinduism worship them. They are mostly shapeless pieces of wood or stone smeared with vermilion, and often represent evil spirits or devils. These are the Amnia, Ammuu, and Amur of the eastern and southern parts of the Peninsula, and the Satwai, Bhairo, Massoba, Chamanda, Asra, Ai, Marri-ai, etc., of the northern and western parts of the Peninsula, all of whom are recognised as causing harm to individuals. In health they are neglected ; but when sickness occurs, either to individuals or as an epidemic, these spirits of evil are worshipped with much solemnity, and bloody sacrifices are made to them, of goats and sheep, and bullocks and buffaloes. Gotra and kula mean a family, and they existed amongst Kshat riya and Vaisya as well as Brahmans. The gotra depend on a real or imaginary community of blood, and then correspond to what we call families. No Hindu house is supposed to bo without its tutelary divinity, but the notion attached to this character is now very far from precise. The deity who is the object of heredi
tary or family worship, the Kula-deva, is always Siva, or Vishnu, or Durga, or other principal personage of the Hindu mythology ; but the Griha - deva, or household god, rarely bears any distinct appellation. In Bengal, the domestic god is sometimes the saligram, sometimes the tulsi plant, sometimes a basket with a little rice in it, and sometimes a water jar, to any of which a brief adoration is daily addressed, most usually by the females of the family. Occasionally small images of Lakshmi or Chandi fulfil the office, or, should a snake appear, it is worshipped as the guardian of the dwelling. In general, in former times, the household deities were regarded as the unseen spirits of ill, the ghosts and goblins who hovered about every spot, and claimed some particular sites as their own. At the close of all ceremonies, offerings were made to them in the open air, to keep them in good humour, by scat tering a little rice with a short formula. Thus at the end of the daily ceremony, the householder is enjoined by Menu, 3.90, to throw up his oblation (bali) in the open air to all the gods, to those who walk by day and those who walk by night.' In this light the household gods correspond better with the genii locorum than with the lares or penates of antiquity.
The Hindu now, as did the Greeks and other nations of antiquity, always make offering of the first portion of each meal to the gods. Anna deva is the goddess of food.
The IIindu householder, after to the gods, sages, and progenitors, is to offer to Brahma, oblations, with fire, not preceded by any other rite, with such ceremonies and in such form as are adapted to the religious rite which is intended to be subsequently performed.—Wilson, Hindu Theatre; Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 337.