Huligemma

Huligemma is a goddess of northern Karnataka whose name carries the Kannada huli, the tiger, the animal with which she is associated and on which she is commonly depicted riding. Her principal temple stands at Huligi, a village on the Tungabhadra in Koppal district, and she is worshipped across the surrounding districts as a powerful form of the regional mother-goddess; in local tradition she is often counted with Yellamma of Saundatti among the sisterhood of Deccan goddesses. She belongs to the world of the Deccan's fierce protective mothers, whose worship runs beneath and alongside the temple Hinduism of the region.

Worship

Her worship follows the pattern of the great village goddesses of the region. Devotees come to Huligi on full-moon days, when the temple holds its principal fairs, and pilgrims arrive from northern Karnataka and the neighbouring Telugu districts to fulfil vows made for health, children and protection. Offerings of turmeric and kumkuma mark her rites, and many households of the region keep her as their family deity, invoking her as a fierce but reliable mother whose tiger signals both danger mastered and danger held at bay.