Epom (the Jungle Lord)
Tani · numen · Tani traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Epom is a named class-defining forest being of the Adi branch of the Tani peoples, rendered by Claire Scheid as the 'Jungle Lord.' Adi narrative identifies the first Epom as the elder brother of the first human, Tani (Abotani); their primordial quarrel over land, ornaments and living-space sunders the human and wild domains and sets in motion an ancestral feud that has never ended. Thereafter the Epom dwells in the trees at the periphery of settlement and acts as a sinister warden of the natural order, kidnapping or killing those of Tani's line who violate the boundaries of the forest. The figure is at once kin to humanity and its dangerous shadow, the mythic embodiment of the perilous wilderness that hems in the cultivated Tani world.
Parentage
Domains
- forest and wilderness
Powers
- to police the wilderness and seize those who violate its order
Epithets
- EpomClaire S. Scheid, 'The "Jungle Lord" and the Natural Order: Adi Narratives About the Epom,' The Oriental Anthropologist 24, no. 1 (2024). (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Abotani (primeval ancestor of the Tani peoples)The Epom is the elder brother of Tani (Abotani); their fraternal rivalry over land and ornaments is the origin of the enduring estrangement between the human and forest domains.Claire S. Scheid, 'The "Jungle Lord" and the Natural Order: Adi Narratives About the Epom,' The Oriental Anthropologist 24, no. 1 (2024). (secondary)
- enemy: Abotani (primeval ancestor of the Tani peoples)Out of the brothers' original dispute springs a perpetual feud in which the Epom harries Abotani's descendants who trespass against the order of the wild.Claire S. Scheid, 'The "Jungle Lord" and the Natural Order: Adi Narratives About the Epom,' The Oriental Anthropologist 24, no. 1 (2024). (secondary)
Sources
- The Epom is a dangerous tree-dwelling forest entity of Adi (Tani) belief, the elder brother and perpetual antagonist of the ancestor Abotani, who polices the wilderness and preys on transgressors.: Claire S. Scheid, 'The "Jungle Lord" and the Natural Order: Adi Narratives About the Epom,' The Oriental Anthropologist 24, no. 1 (2024). (secondary); Verrier Elwin, Myths of the North-East Frontier of India (Shillong: North-East Frontier Agency, 1958). (secondary)