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A devak, in Maratha people of Maharashtra,
Census of India, 1901
'. Census Commissioner Printed at the Rajputana Mission Press, 1903. V. 1.
A devak, in Maratha people of Maharashtra, India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
culture, is a family guardian or totem
A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan ...
in the form of a physical object, such as a tree. Some sources define ''devak'' as being distinct from the more generic word ''totem''.
The word Devak implies god.
The devak plays an important role in Maratha
The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...
marriages, as traditionally a man may not marry a woman whose paternal-lineage totem is the same as his own.Census of India, 1901
'. Census Commissioner Printed at the Rajputana Mission Press, 1903. V. 1.
See also
*Pole worship
A ceremonial pole is a stake or post utilised or venerated as part of a ceremony or religious ritual. Ceremonial poles may symbolize a variety of concepts in different ceremonies and rituals practiced by a variety of cultures around the world ...
References
Culture of Maharashtra Indian culture {{Hindu-myth-stub