In the Footsteps of the Gourd-Ancestor: Tribal Gods in Regional Hinduism of Odisha

Abstract

The article attempts to discover elements of the tribal cult of the gourdancestor in the regional Hinduism of Odisha. This cult goes back to the anthropogenic myth of the Deluge and escape inside a giant gourd. Both the myth and the cult of its hero are found among many tribes in the southern parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh and have many parallels in continental Southeast Asia and southern China. Besides, the name of the hero of the myth in many cultures is derived from the word ‘gourd’. Several Shaivite deities have been found in Hinduism of Odisha, whose names literally mean ‘gourd god’. A detailed analysis of different versions of temple legends associated with these deities has shown that, although the Hindu narrative was created independently of tribal cults, some of its details still point to the substrate influence of the gourd-ancestor cult.