Devata


Devata are smaller and more focused Devas in Indian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The term "devata" itself can also mean deva. They can be either male or female. Every human activity has its devata, its spiritual counterpart or aspect.

Types

There are many kinds of devatas: vanadevatas, gramadevata, devatas of river crossings, caves, mountains, and so on. For example, in the Konkan region of India, Hindu devatas are often divided into five categories:
  1. Grama devatas or village deities who could be the founder deity such as Jathera or ancestral worship of Bali, and examples include Santoshi, Renuka, Aiyanar
  2. Sthana devatas or local deities, for example, those in certain places of pilgrimage like Rama in Nasik, Vithoba in Pandharpur, Krishna at Dwarka, Kali at Kolkata, Mahalakshmi at Kolhapur, Devi Kanya Kumari at Kanyakumari
  3. Kula devatas or family deities, like Khanderai and Muniandi
  4. Ishta devatas or chosen deities
  5. Vastu devatas or Gruha devatas, a class of deities that preside over the house.
Following are some of the important types of Dewatas in Sri Lankan Buddhism:
  • Bandara Dewatawo are dewatas of trees, mountains, etc.
  • Gambara Dewatawo are dewatas of the villages
  • Loka Dewatawo are dewatas of planets

    Scriptures

Some well-known Hindu-Buddhist heavenly beings belong to the group of devatas, such as apsaras or vidhyadaris and their male counterparts, the gandharvas. Devatas often occur in many Buddhist Jatakas, Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and in many other Buddhist holy scriptures.
The island of Bali is nicknamed Pulau Dewata because of its vivid Hindu culture and traditions. In Indonesia, the term hyang is equivalent to devata. In Hinduism, the devatas that guard the eight, nine and ten cardinal points are called Lokapala or, more specifically in ancient Java tradition, Dewata Nawa Sanga.