Ini Andan
Iban · deity · Iban traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ini Andan, 'Grandmother Andan', is the benevolent goddess of justice, customary law and healing. Addressed by the honorific ini given to revered ancestral women, she is the divine guardian of adat, the body of custom that regulates Iban society, and is invoked to set right offences against it and to compose disputes. She is likewise a healing deity and a patroness of the manang, called upon in curing rites. She is sometimes identified with, or paired with, Ini Inda, and sources differ over how sharply she is to be distinguished from other benevolent grandmother-figures of the Iban sky-world.
Domains
- justice
- healing
- order
Powers
- arbitrates disputes and upholds customary law
- restores the sick to health
Epithets
- Ini Andan Ini Inda — Grandmother Andan, Grandmother IndaSather, Clifford (2001), Seeds of Play, Words of Power (Kuching: Tun Jugah Foundation). (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Sengalang BurongSandin, Benedict (1967), The Sea Dayaks of Borneo Before White Rajah Rule (London: Macmillan), divine genealogy. (primary)
Sources
- Ini Andan is the benevolent Iban goddess of justice, customary law and healing, a patroness of the manang.: Jensen, Erik (1974), The Iban and their Religion (Oxford: Clarendon Press). (secondary); Sather, Clifford (2001), Seeds of Play, Words of Power (Kuching: Tun Jugah Foundation). (secondary)