Family Deity & Rituals Of Nityundan Gotriya Bhides

The family Deity often consists of a God a Goddess, like most of the Indians, Bhides belonging to ‘Kokanastha Brahmin’ branch also have their family deity. The God is ‘Shankar’ the Goddess is ‘Parvati’. Almost all the Nityundan Gotriya Bhides (with an exception of very few) have ‘Vyadeshwar’ (meaning ‘the destroyer of Evils’) located at Guhagar, as the God & ‘Yogeshwari’ or ‘Jogeshwari’ located at ‘Ambajogai, as Goddess as their family deity. These are essentially the various names of God Shankar, often ending with suffix ‘Ishwar’ that of Goddess Parvati often called ‘Durga’ or ‘Amba’. Some of the Bhides from Jamse branch, have God ‘Brahman’ Goddess Durga as their family Deity.It must be noted here that, out of the various meanings of the word ‘Brahman’ one meaning is ‘Shankar’. In few other cases, migrated Bhides adopted the local ‘Gram-Devata’ or the locally worshipped God & the Goddess as their family deity
Like the family deity, there are certain rituals to be performed. Some of the main rituals that are performed by ‘Bhides’ are as follows: ( due to lack of Space, time & money, some of them have become out-dated or irrelevant)
1)Ganesh Chathurthi & Gauri
2)Navaratra & Mahalaxmi
3)Mangalagauri
4)Newly married couple to visit God ‘Khoba’, Goddess ‘Amba’ etc.
5)Diwali Dev-diwali
6)Navaratra of ‘Khoba’ ( not very common)
7)Bodan- after birth, after ‘Vratabha’ ( Munjya ), after marriage.
8)Gondhal & Jogava (not very common)
9)Dohale Jewan- lunch feast to relatives in the seventh month of Pregancy.