Earth-Maker Mother
Garo · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Female mother-creator / demiurge deity who executes Tatara-Rabuga's will. The compound title 'Nostu Nopantu Misi Siste' attaches to the act of separating land from water. Latin (Roman) script with Bengali transliteration noted. Playfair 1909; the earth-diving motif (a creature bringing up clay) appears in fuller Garo tellings.
Domains
- earth creation and formation
- primordial waters and land
Powers
- fashion the earth out of the primal waters
Epithets
- Nostu-Nopantu The goddess who, at the creator’s word, fashioned the earth upon the watersA. Playfair, The Garos (secondary)
- Mane Pilte the name given to the earth she bore at Tatara-Rabuga's commandGaro Journal, 'The Garo Myth on the Creation of the Universe' (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Creator GodDeputed by the creator Tatara-Rabuga to fashion the earth, spreading land upon the waters in his name.A. Playfair, The Garos (1909) (secondary)
Sources
- Nostu-Nopantu is the female creative spirit whom Tatara-Rabuga sent, in the shape of a woman, to make the earth (named Mane Pilte) out of the primeval water.: A. Playfair, The Garos, London, 1909 (ethnography)