Shitala

Hindu goddess who is both worshiped
and feared. Shitala was traditionally
believed to be the physical representation of smallpox, a deadly virus, and a
person infected with the disease was
thought to be possessed by the goddess,
a notion reinforced by the fever and
delirium that often accompany this disease. Shitala is also associated with
heat—both because of the fever caused
by smallpox and because her major
religious observance, Shitalashtami,
comes near the advent of the hot season. Shitala is considered a jealous,
spiteful goddess whose wrath is visited
upon those who ignore and displease
her. The literal meaning of her name,
“Cool One,” can be seen as an attempt to
appease her wrath through flattery.
Shitala has retained prominence even
though the World Health Organization
has declared that smallpox has been
completely eradicated. In a fascinating
example of religious change, one writer
details how Shitala has shifted the disease through which she shows herself,
and now appears in the guise of tuberculosis. 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.