the goddess of smallpox.

10. Adoption of foreign religions

In Berar and Bombay the Mahars have some curious forms of belief. "Of
the confusion which obtains in the Mahar theogony the names of six
of their gods will afford a striking example. While some Mahars
worship Vithoba, the god of Pandharpur, others revere Varuna's twin
sons, Meghoni and Deghoni, and his four messengers, Gabriel, Azrael,
Michael and Anadin, all of whom they say hail from Pandharpur." [124]
The names of archangels thus mixed up with Hindu deities may most
probably have been obtained from the Muhammadans, as they include
Azrael; but in Gujarat their religion appears to have been borrowed
from Christianity. "The Karia Dhedas have some rather remarkable
beliefs. In the Satya Yug the Dhedas say they were called Satyas;
in the Dvapar Yug they were called Meghas; in the Treta Yug, Elias;
and in the Kali Yug, Dhedas. The name Elias came, they say, from
a prophet Elia, and of him their religious men have vague stories;
some of them especially about a famine that lasted for three years
and a half, easily fitting into the accounts of Elijah in the Jewish
Scriptures. They have also prophecies of a high future in store for
their tribe. The king or leader of the new era, Kuyam Rai by name,
will marry a Dheda woman and will raise the caste to the position of
Brahmans. They hold religious meetings or _ochhavas_, and at these
with great excitement sing songs full of hope of the good things in
store for them. When a man wishes to hold an _ochhava_ he invites
the whole caste, and beginning about eight in the evening they often
spend the night in singing. Except perhaps for a few sweetmeats
there is no eating or drinking, and the excitement is altogether
religious and musical. The singers are chiefly religious Dhedas or
Bhagats, and the people join in a refrain '_Avore Kuyam Rai Raja_',
'Oh! come Kuyam Rai, our king.'" [125] It seems that the attraction
which outside faiths exercise on the Mahars is the hope held out of
ameliorating the social degradation under which they labour, itself
an outcome of the Hindu theory of caste. Hence they turn to Islam,
or to what is possibly a degraded version of the Christian story,
because these religions do not recognise caste, and hold out a promise
to the Mahar of equality with his co-religionists, and in the case of
Christianity of a recompense in the world to come for the sufferings
which he has to endure in this on