Lingo the Culture-Bringer

Gondi pen 'god'. Culture-hero/demigod (half-divine founder). Modern Koitur revival venerates him as Pari Kupar Lingo; Kachargad cave is a pilgrimage site. Hislop's 1866 transcription of a Pardhan bard is the earliest recorded Lingo epic.

Domains

• culture and civilization
• agriculture
• music
• law

Powers

• frees the imprisoned clan-gods from the cave by music
• organizes the Gond into the clan-and-phratry system
• institutes the ghotul youth-dormitory

Epithets

• Pari Kupar Lingo
• Pahandi Pari Kupar Lingo

Relations

• ally: Mother of the Gonds

Sources

• Hislop, S. (1866). The Legend of Lingo, in Papers Relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, ed. R. Temple. Nagpur.
• Elwin, V. (1947). The Muria and their Ghotul. Oxford University Press.
• Elwin, V. (1949). Myths of Middle India. Oxford University Press.