Earth Mother

Kirati (Rai) primordial earth-mother, classed as deity (cosmogonic creatress/first ancestress). Half of the Rai primordial pair with Paruhang. Widely celebrated in modern Nepali Kirati literature (e.g. B.P. Koirala's novel 'Sumnima'). Documented in Gaenszle's ethnographies of the Mewahang Rai.

Children

• Hetchhakuppa, Founder of the Agricultural Age

Domains

• earth
• fertility

Powers

• breathe life into the first woman

Relations

• spouse: Sky Father
• syncretism: Parvati

Sources

• 'Rai people', Wikipedia, accessed June 2026
• 'The Spiritual and Cultural Legacy of the Kiratis', thewondernepal.com, accessed June 2026
• Gaenszle, Martin. 'Origins and Migrations: Kinship, Mythology and Ethnic Identity among the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal' (2000)
• Gaenszle, Martin. 'Ancestral types: mythology and the classification of deities among the Mewahang Rai' (Éditions de l'EHESS)