Suvanası
Kumyk · numen · Kumyk traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Suvanası (Suv-anası, 'mother of the water') is the Kumyk water-spirit, envisaged as a giant, exceptionally strong woman who dwells in rivers. She is dangerous to human beings, able to harm or drown those who come down to the water, and folk narrative warns bathers and washerwomen against her. In the reconstructed pagan pantheon she is counted among the water-element deities together with Zemire and Sütqatın, and she survives in oral tale and cautionary custom into modern times.
Domains
- water
Powers
- drowns those who enter the water
Epithets
- Сув анасы — Mother of the WaterChirikba, V. A. (2015). Between Christianity and Islam: Heathen Heritage in the Caucasus. Brill. (secondary)
Relations
- ally: ZemireCounted with Zemire among the water-element deities; the name Murgurek is reported as uniting the two.Ethnographic reports that the name Murgurek links Suvanası with the rain-goddess Zemire; Cyberleninka, Kumyk rain rituals. (secondary)
Sources
- Suvanası, 'water mother', is a giant, exceptionally strong woman living in rivers who can harm or kill people coming down to the water.: Chirikba, V. A. (2015). Between Christianity and Islam: Heathen Heritage in the Caucasus. In Studies on Iran and the Caucasus (pp. 145-191). Leiden: Brill. (secondary)
- Suvanası is counted among the water-element deities of the Kumyk pantheon alongside Zemire and Sütqatın.: Obryady vyzova dozhdya v traditsionnoy kul'ture tyurkoyazychnykh narodov Prikaspiyskogo Dagestana. Cyberleninka. (secondary)