Goddess
Uppalamma is the most familiar goddess in many parts of Telengana from olden
days and newly in costal belt of Andhrapradesh. The word Uppaalamma derived
from words Upparla Amma. Upparas are classified as Kshathriyas but in course of
time they became downtrodden and spread among various occupations among
which salt preparation is prominent and
the name Uppara comes from Telugu word Uppu (Salt).They are the descendants of the Emperor Sagara of
Suryavansha one among the so called
Shaktchakravarthis. So goddess who is worshipped by Uppara community is called
as UPPALAMMA there after in time she became prominent deity among all the
castes.
The
relation between Uppara people and Goddess traces back to story of Goddess
Renuka Yellamma a form of goddess Durga. Goddess Renuka is the wife of saint
Jamadhagni one among the saptharshis. They both were treated as Shiva and
Pravathi. They were blessed with five children and younger one is named as
Parashuram who is the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. They were blessed with
kaamadhenu by lord Indra as their Marriage gift. The celestial cow has
innumerous powers so that it can grant any boon aske to it.One day Renuka while
bringing water for hermitage rituals from the river of Malaprabha saw shadow of
Gandharvas who were engaged in sexual play and her mind got disturbed and
immediately all her spiritual powers went in vain. Jamadhagni by seeing Renuka
with empty hands got angry and asked his five children to chop of her head so
that her mind gets seperated from body pleasures. Four of them rejected and
smashed to ashes by the fire emanated from third of Jamadhagni. Parashuram upon
seeing that obeyed his father and chopped Renuka's head and Renuka thus became
Chinnamastha. Jamadhagni became happy and asked parashuram to have three boons.
Then parashuram asked to make his mother alive,brothers alive and to leave back krodhadevatha who is cause for entire
tragedy. Jamadhagni did later two and gave some holy water to sprinkle on dead
body of Renuka so that she becomes alive. Jamadhagni then with his family
decided to take Vaanaprasthashrama the stage of spiritual life in which they
get detached from entire world and live in a forest. Parashuram to get retrieve
from Mathruhathya Dosham thought of
doing penance and went to MahendraGiri. Remaining sons went for spreading
divinity among people. Jamadhagni and
Renuka along with Kaamadhenu went to
foots of Himalayas and built a Hermitage. The area comes under kingdom of king
Kaarthaveeryarjuna who is a great devotee of lord Dattathreya. Jamadhagni with
the help of Kaamadhenu was solving problems of people and doing GnaanaBodha to
people coming there. King after heard about the cow came to hermitage and got
wondered by the arrangements made to him by the cow. Selfish king thought of
having the cow in his courtyard asked Saint . Saint refused which made king
angry and king fought with Jamadhagni and killed him. Renuka got wounded 21
times by the king. Every time she recieved a wounf she called parashuram (21
times) and took the celestial cow along with him. Parashuram after coming there
come to know all the story and promised her mother to bring back the cow and
ask it to nring his father back to life. Parashuram then waged war with king
and killed him and took the cow to hermitage and made his father alive. After
that parashuram again went to penance. Taking this as oppurtunity sons of king came to hermitage and killed
Jamadhagni again. Enraged parashuram decided to make this earth free from kings
who are deviating from rachadharmas by circumlating it 21 times. Then
Parashuram started killing bloody kings with his ferocious axe blessed to him
by Lord shiva himself. Some of the kings who got feared by hearing this fled
away to mountains and forests by leaving their king hoods.Then enraged
parashuram finally met Lord Dasharadh Ram seventh incarnation of Vishnu and
pacified by seeing him that he is the
correct ruler to make this earth again pious by his kingship.
The
kings who fled away from their kingdom started leading a life of down trodden
and started doing sudra occupations divided among various clans of kings like stone cutting(Vaddera),salt
making(Uppara) etc.. Even the escaped from ParashuRam they could not able to
escape from his intension of killing falsy kings. So the Hand of Parashuram
started evolving in each and every house of them in the form of Mushroom. Where ever they go it started evolving
there.Family who got this had to suffer a lot in the form of health,wealth etc.
People who got this identified as some eternal power residing in it and treated
her Mother Goddess and started worshipping such hands to pacify the goddess. As
the goddess is predominant among Uppara community she is called as Uppalamma.
Later on when there vanished difference between 4 varnas of society goddess
started evolving in every house to keep Adharma in control and became goddess
every one.
It
was also believed that Parashuram after pacifying decided to purify his soul
from that cruel nature and tried to throw that axe from his hand but it did not
leave his hand then he finally threw it in Arabian see by which a piece of land
has uplifted to form present day Kerala which he gave as Dhaanam (BHU DHAANAM)
for brahmins to get rid of his sins.
Even the axe was removed from his hand the feeling of sin did not move from his
mind. He prayed to Mother Goddess Renuka then she appeared and offered boon
such that his hand evolves in every house and will be purified by the owner of
house by worshiping it with utmost devotion.
In
this way Goddess Uppalamma started evolving in each and every house. Then on
wards people when they found hand shaped Mushroom in their compounds believed
it to be Mother Goddess and started worshiping her. Coming to type of offerings
either Sathvik or Tamasic depends on the type of mushroom evolved. When that
Mushroom was pinched it may either give bloody fluid or white latex. If it is
bloody Fluid offering must be Tamasic(sacrifice of goats,hens or bulls) if it
is white latex offering must be Sathvik(vegetarian Food).
There
are many kinds of such Murshrooms.
1)
Mushroom of Red in complexion and appears as Carrots.
2)
An Egg shaped white mushroom with ring of black spots on its top (vegetarian)
3)Hand
Shaped Mushroom.
They
may give smell of Blossoms on first three days later smell of Rotten Meat.