These entities, unlike the general Gods, are very limited in their activity.
Deities strongly bound to bodies (abhimAnI-devatA-s)
- A vaidika view [YT] is that certain devatA-s are conscious and willful entities attached to every single living or non-living substance. Example: one addressses the twig to be broken, the grass to be cut, the scythe to be used, the ladle etc..
- Mantresha-s and text-bodies are described in the mantreshaH page
- Prominently, they’re in the natural objects/ forces/ motivations they personify.
Correspondance with natural objects
- sun, moon, earth, air, planets, stars
- Dawn.
- Cloud, thunder and rain
- Trees
- [IMG]
- Flowers
- padma as the abode of lakShmI at dawn, is not plucked.
- Forests
- (Ref shAkuntala and bhavabhUti for forest deity)
- Mountains
- himAlaya
- Water bodies
- Rivers
- Seas
- lakes
- City deities
- lankA in rAmAyaNa
- ayodhyA (in some kAvya)
shaiva-siddhAnta
There are empowered souls on the path to mokSha that are delegated various cosmological tasks (e.g., the vidyeshvara-s).
Then there are those who have attained mokSha/shivatvam who may no longer do any work since they won’t do anything impelled by desire. Do they then do anything spontaneously? I’m not sure. They are all-pervasive like the Śiva & also bear all of existence within themselves.