Mariamman (also known as Amman or mother) is the rural South Indian mother goddess (predominantly in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhrapradesh). She is usually portrayed with a red-hued face, and cures all summer heat-based diseases like pox and rashes. She is most famously referred to as Maariamman.

In many rural shrines, She has no form - just a granite stone with a sharp tip, almost like a spear head. She is adorned with garlands made of limes.

During the summer months, people walk miles carrying pots of water mixed with turmeric and neem leaves to ward off illnesses like the measles and chicken pox. People also pray for progeny, a good spouse, et cetera. The most favoured offering is "pongal", a mix of rice and green gram, cooked mostly in the temple complex itself, on firewood.

Most Amman shrines have an anthill that could be the resting place of a cobra. Milk and eggs are offered to propitiate the snake god.

She is worshipped as the Small/Chicken Pox Deity and is very similar in characteristics to Shitala Devi in North India

Mariamman Temples

There are many Mariamman Temples in southern India, as well as some in locations outside of India. Among the latter is a notable Sri Mariamman temple in Singapore, a Mariamman temple in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as one in Medan Indonesia.

Bibliography

• Kolenda, Pauline Pox and the terror of Childlessness: Images and Ideas of the Smallpox Goddess in a North Indian Village in P. Kolenda Caste, Cult and Hierarchy: Essays on the Culture of India (New Delhi: Folklore Institute, 1983) 198-221
• Rigopoulos, Antonio The life and teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi State University of New York press, Albany, (1993) ISBN 0-7914-1268-7 pages 78, 80, 160, 224, 226, 250