Petara is the Iban term for the benevolent, world-ordering high divinity, standing in opposition to the antu, the manifold spirits and demons of the forest and river. Iban usage is fluid: in some contexts petara names a single supreme creator god who fashioned the world and dispenses tuah, the state of blessedness or luck on which harvests, health and headhunting success depend; in others it is a collective term embracing the whole company of great gods, each a petara in his own right. The name is a loan from Sanskrit bhattara ('noble lord'), one of several Indic terms absorbed into Malayic ritual speech. In the invocatory chants the ultimate divinity is sometimes addressed as Biku Bunsu Petara, the last-born or supreme lord. Sources differ on whether the Iban originally recognized a single creator or arrived at that idea under later Malay and missionary influence.