Nanga Baigin
Baiga · demigod · Baiga traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nanga Baigin, 'the Naked Baiga-woman', is the primordial first woman and consort of Nanga Baiga. In the creation myth it is she who, naked, drives the four great Agaria nails into the corners of the trembling world to fasten it in place, sharing with her husband the office of earth-guardian. From the union of the naked pair came the two sons and two daughters whose intermarriage begot the Baiga people; a variant makes their elder son the ancestor of the Baiga and the younger the ancestor of the Gond. She is venerated beside Nanga Baiga as a founding ancestor of the tribe.
Parentage
- maternal: Dharti Mata
Domains
- earth guardianship
- ancestry
Powers
- drives the great nails into the corners of the world
Epithets
- Nanga Baigin — the Naked Baiga-womanVerrier Elwin, The Baiga (1939). (primary)
Relations
- spouse: Nanga BaigaThe naked first pair, ancestors of the Baiga.Verrier Elwin, The Baiga (1939). (primary)
Sources
- Nanga Baigin is the naked first woman, consort of Nanga Baiga, who drove the nails that fixed the earth and mothered the Baiga race.: Verrier Elwin, The Baiga (London: John Murray, 1939). (primary); Verrier Elwin, Myths of Middle India (Oxford University Press, 1949). (primary)