Donyi (Mother Sun)

Donyi, the Sun, is the central object of veneration in the Donyi-Polo (literally 'Sun-Moon') religion of the Tani-speaking peoples of central Arunachal Pradesh. Conceived as Ane Donyi, 'Mother Sun,' she is the luminous, all-seeing manifestation of an otherwise formless supreme power and the guarantor of moral order: the Tani hold that Donyi-Polo providently upholds the world, rewards the upright and punishes the wrongdoer, and the deity is therefore summoned as witness in oaths and judicial ordeals. With the Moon, Abo Polo ('Father Moon'), Donyi forms the inseparable Donyi-Polo couple that names the faith itself.

Domains

• sun and cosmic order
• truth and moral judgement

Powers

• to witness all human deeds and reward the righteous while punishing the wrongdoer

Epithets

• Ane DonyiStuart Blackburn, Himalayan Tribal Tales: Oral Tradition and Culture in the Apatani Valley (Leiden: Brill, 2008). (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: Polo (Father Moon)The Sun (Mother, Ane Donyi) and the Moon (Father, Abo Polo) form the conjoined Donyi-Polo principle, frequently likened by observers to a complementary female-male pairing.Claire S. Scheid, 'The Institutionalization of Tribal Religion: Recasting the Donyi-Polo Movement in Arunachal Pradesh,' Asian Ethnology 75, no. 2 (2016). (secondary)

Sources

• Donyi, the Sun conceived as 'Mother Sun' (Ane Donyi), is the supreme moral principle and cosmic witness of the Tani peoples' Donyi-Polo religion, paired with the Moon Polo.: Verrier Elwin, Myths of the North-East Frontier of India (Shillong: North-East Frontier Agency, 1958). (secondary); Claire S. Scheid, 'The Institutionalization of Tribal Religion: Recasting the Donyi-Polo Movement in Arunachal Pradesh,' Asian Ethnology 75, no. 2 (2016). (secondary)