Budalaali
Andi · numen · Andi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The budalaali are invisible, mostly benevolent beings who own the wild animals and the increase of the mountains. They pasture the tur and wild goats as their own herds, and a hunter succeeds only with a beast they choose to give up; to shoot wastefully, to break the quarry's bones or to boast is to forfeit their favour and one's future luck. The same spirits bring or withhold barakat, the blessing of plenty, from a household's flocks and stores, so that they belong at once to the hunting cult and to the agrarian cult of abundance central to Andic religion.
Domains
- wild animals
- hunting
- abundance
Powers
- herd and count the wild tur
- bestow abundance on a household
Sources
- Invisible benevolent spirits who own and herd the wild game and dispense abundance to households; hunters must respect their rules of the chase or lose their luck.: Халидова М. Р. Мифологический и историко-героический эпос народов Дагестана. Махачкала, 1992. (primary); Сефербеков Р. И. Пантеон языческих божеств народов Дагестана. Махачкала, 2009. (secondary)