Dinga Pennu (the Judge of the Dead)
Kondh · deity · Kondh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Dinga (Dinga Pennu) is the judge of the dead in the classic account of Kondh religion set down by the officer S. C. Macpherson in the mid-nineteenth century and rehearsed by E. B. Tylor and later encyclopaedists. All the Kondh gods (Pennu) are held to descend from the supreme light-god Bura Pennu and the earth-goddess Tari Pennu; among the resulting second order of deities, alongside the gods of rain, war, boundaries, hunting and increase, stands Dinga, who judges the souls of the departed and apportions their retribution. He thus fills, within the Kondh pantheon, the office of divine assessor of the dead.
Parentage
Domains
- death and afterlife
- justice and retribution
Powers
- to judge the souls of the dead
- to allot reward and retribution to the departed
Relations
- subordinate to: Bura Pennu (the Light-god / Sun-god)As one of the deities descended from the creator Bura Pennu, Dinga ranks below the supreme light-god in the Kondh hierarchy.Samuel Charters Macpherson, 'An Account of the Religion of the Khonds in Orissa', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 13 (1852), pp. 216-274 (secondary)
Sources
- Dinga Pennu is the Kondh judge of the dead and allotter of retribution, ranked among the second order of gods descended from the creator pair Bura Pennu and Tari Pennu.: Samuel Charters Macpherson, 'An Account of the Religion of the Khonds in Orissa', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 13 (1852), pp. 216-274 (secondary); Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 2 (John Murray, 1871) (secondary)