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Author - Biswarup Chatterjee.
Introduction: Folk Deities and Rural Religious Imagination in Bengal
The rural religious culture of Bengal preserves many forms of folk worship that exist outside the strict boundaries of classical or textual Hinduism. In villages, especially in older agrarian communities, people often worship local deities connected with disease, fertility, childbirth, protection, misfortune, and the fear of death. These deities are not always gentle or benevolent in appearance. Many of them are represented in fierce, terrifying, or unusual forms, reflecting the anxieties and emotional world of village society.