The Satvai and Settlement Pattern in Rural Western Maharashtra

This article describes the manner in which the shrines of a popular childbirth affliction-related goddess known as the Satvai determine notions about the traditional settlement patterns prevalent in rural Western Maharashtra since medieval times. Even in modern times, the shrines and rituals of the Satvai are strongly territorial in nature and divide the rural landscape on the basis of various descriptive levels, forming a pattern within which settlements and habitations are typically and traditionally organized. The cult of the Satvai forms the ideological basis for the continuation of this pattern, which is subjected to anthropological and historical analysis. The article attempts to describe this territorial spread of the Satvai, dividing her sphere of influence in terms of a hypothetical pyramid with four rungs that pertain to regional localities that are contained within each other and are owned and inherited by clans from higher castes through control over the birth of their children, helped by lower caste healers

Ancient history · Archaeology · Caste · Clan · Cult · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Human settlement · Ideology · Political science · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Law · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

• Religion, 'nature' and environmental ethics in ancient India

  Julia Shaw•World Archaeology•2016

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