Kaval deivam

Posted by Sathiyan (Bangalore, India) on 20 August 2007 in Architecture and Portfolio.

Kaval Deivangal or Divine Guardian Angels. These Kaval Deivangal are associated to a main deity who is generally ascribed as Kuladeivam by various sects of community clan groups as part of the tracing their generation through centuries. Most of the Ayyanar shrines come under this by categorizing under specific local variants of Kaval deivams and the important fact is that Ayyanar himself should be considered as the central focal point of all Kaval deivams. But due to the change in times, even Kaval deivams such as Sudalai, Sonai, Pechhi, etc located in different locations are wrongly referred to as an individual temples; which are, in fact, an attachment to some of the nearby local Peripheral Folk-Deity namely, the Ayyanar.

Worship of the village Ayyanar or Sathanar deities with clay horse system is very popular in Tamil Nadu and is much more ancient than Vedic worship. It dates back to the Sangam age and represents the oldest Dravidian way of worship.

Text source: Wikipedia