This 2-volume study examines the reality of Hindu worship in northern India from the perspective of its popular manifestation. In rural areas, practical Hinduism differed dramatically from organized Vedic Hinduism and included cult worship of a multitude of local deities which were not formally recognized by the Vedas but exerted a greater influence on the rhythms, meanings and decisions of day-to-day life. Crooke's study may have been the first to look at the religion through eyes other than those of missionaries or the Hindu elite, seeking to fill a gap in European intellectual knowledge of India by documenting living traditions in a serious and accessible manner.
Volume 1:
The Godlings of Nature
The Heroic and Village Godlings
The Godlings of Disease
The Worship of the Sainted Dead
Worship of the Malevolent Dead
Volume 2:
The Evil Eye and the Scaring of Ghosts
Tree and Serpent Worship
Totemism and Fetishism
Animal-Worship
The Black Art
Some Rural Festivals and Ceremonies

William Crooke (1848-1923) was a British orientalist and a key figure in the study and documentation of Anglo-Indian folklore. In 1871, Crooke joined the Indian Civil Service. While an administrator in India, he found abundant material for his researches in the ancient civilizations of the country. He found ample time to write much on the people of India, their religions, beliefs and customs, having a burst of activity as a published ethnologist in the field. This began in the 1890s when Crooke's output in the field of ethnography was considerable, comprising the journal, two volumes of Popular Religion and Folklore and the four volumes that make up Tribes and Castes of the North Western Provinces.