Page:Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Purānic.djvu/512

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CHAPTER X.

MISCELLANEOUS MINOR DEITIES.

1. Shitala.

Shitala is the Bengali name for the small-pox, and for the deity who is supposed to have charge of that disease. The meaning of the word is “She who makes cold."

SHITALA.

This goddess is represented as a golden-complexioned woman sitting on a lotus, or riding on an ass, dressed in red clothes. Before an image of this kind, or more commonly a pan of water merely,

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