Batara Guru is the supreme sky deity of Malay folk cosmology, a Malay reflex of the Hindu god Shiva absorbed through the Srivijaya and Majapahit strata of Indianised belief and preserved under a later Islamic surface. He presides over kayangan, the upperworld, at the summit of a spirit hierarchy descending through mambang and jinn to the hantu of earth and water, and his name is spoken at the height of the bomoh's and pawang's invocations as lord of the heavens and giver of sacred knowledge. Sources differ on whether he is wholly identical with the abstract high god Dewata Mulia Raya or a distinct presiding figure beneath him.