Goddess Mariamman is a popular Hindu deity in South India
especially in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and in parts of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
She is the Hindu Goddess of the poor and downtrodden and is a gramadevata or
village deity. The story of origin of Mariamman Devi is unique and is
associated with Goddess Renuka, the mother of Parashurama, an incarnation of
Lord Vishnu.
According to legend, Renuka, the wife of Sage Jamadagni, was
famous for her devotion and chastity. It is said that her chastity was so
powerful that she had the divine power to collect water even in unbaked pots.
However, once she happened to see a king making love to his
wife on the riverbank and she had adulterous thoughts. She lost her divine
powers and her husband Sage Jamadagni came to know about this.
The sage had five sons and in anger, he ordered them to cut
the head of Renuka. Four of them refused but Parashuram, the fifth son readily
agreed to cut the head of his mother.
When Parashuram raised his axe to kill his mother, she ran
and took refuge in the house of a low-caste poor woman. Parashuram followed his
mother and while performing the act of beheading, he accidentally chops of the
head of the low-caste poor woman who tried to prevent the matricide.
Pleased with his son’s devotion, Sage Jamadagni asked
Parashuram to accept a boon. He immediately said that he wanted his mother
alive. Sage Jamadagni readily agreed and gave him a pot of water to be
sprinkled on the corpse.
In a hurry to bring back his mother life, Parashuram
accidentally placed the low-caste woman’s head with his mother’s body. Sage
Jamadagni accepted this new form of his wife Renuka.
This form of Mother Goddess is known as Mariamman.