Goddess of Hinduism
who is both revered and dreaded.
Shitala was regarded to be the corporeal embodiment of
smallpox, a fatal virus, and a person affected with the disease was thought to
be possessed by the goddess, a belief bolstered by the fever and madness that
often accompanied the illness.
Shitala is also connected with heat, both because of the
fever induced by smallpox and because her biggest religious celebration,
Shitalashtami, falls towards the beginning of the hot sea summer.
Shitala is said to be a vengeful, spiteful goddess who
punishes people who disobey and displease her.
The literal meaning of her name, "Cool One," might
be interpreted as a flattering effort to placate her fury.
Despite the World Health Organization's declaration that
smallpox has been eliminated, Shitala has maintained her status.
Shitala has modified the dis ease through which she
manifests herself, and now comes in the shape of tuber culosis, according to
one writer, in an interesting illustration of religious development.
See Margaret Thrice
Egnor, "The Changed Mother, or What the Smallpox Goddess Did When There
Was No More Smallpox," Contributions to Asian Studies XVIII, 1984.
