Batara Guru, the First to Descend to the Middleworld

Batara Guru, whose Bugis name is La Togeq Langiq, is the eldest son of the supreme god Patotoqe and his consort Datu Palingeq. He is the first of the manurung, the sky-descended beings: dispatched from the Upperworld Boting Langiq to the empty land of Luwuq, he becomes the first human and the first ruler of the Middleworld (Ale Lino), and in popular tradition he descends through a hollow stalk of golden bamboo, whence the epithet Manurungnge ri Lappa Tellang Pulawengnge. The title Batara Guru itself is a Bugis adaptation of the Sanskrit Bhaṭāra Guru, an epithet of Śiva, reflecting older Indic influence on the region. He takes as his bride We Nyiliq Timoq, who rises from the Underworld; their union joins the upper and lower worlds, and the dynasty descending from them — through their son Batara Lattuq to the hero Sawerigading — drives the action of the entire epic.

Parentage

• parent: Patotoqe, Determiner of Fate of the Upperworld
• parent: Datu Palingeq, Queen of the Upperworld

Children

• Batara Lattuq, Second Ruler of Luwuq

Names and tradition associations

• La Toge’langi’ Bugis · same recordAndi’ Zainal Abidin, The Emergence of Early Kingdoms in South Sulawesi (1983), pp.456, 460–461 and 465, sections IV.2 and V.2 (secondary)

Domains

• kingship of luwuq
• middleworld and human origins
• celestial descent

Powers

• to descend from the Upperworld and take on human form
• to found and rule the first kingdom of the Middleworld

Epithets

• Manurungngé ri LuwuqChristian Pelras, The Bugis (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), chap. 3. (secondary)
• La Togéq LangiqSirtjo Koolhof, 'The La Galigo: A Bugis Encyclopaedia and its Growth', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 155, no. 3 (1999): 362–387. (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: We Nyiliq Timoq, Princess of the UnderworldWe Nyiliq Timoq, eldest daughter of the rulers of the Underworld, rises from the sea to become his bride; she is also reckoned his cross-cousin.Christian Pelras, The Bugis (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), chap. 3. (secondary)
• subordinate to: Patotoqe, Determiner of Fate of the UpperworldHe acts under the decree of his father Patotoqe, who sends him down to the Middleworld.Sirtjo Koolhof, 'The La Galigo: A Bugis Encyclopaedia and its Growth', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 155, no. 3 (1999): 362–387. (secondary)

Sources

• Batara Guru (La Togeq Langiq), eldest son of Patotoqe and Datu Palingeq, is the first being sent from the Upperworld to become the first human and founding ruler of Luwuq in the Bugis La Galigo cycle.: Christian Pelras, The Bugis (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), chap. 3, 'The world of myth'. (secondary); Sirtjo Koolhof, 'The La Galigo: A Bugis Encyclopaedia and its Growth', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 155, no. 3 (1999): 362–387. (secondary)