Maiya
Tharu · deity · Tharu traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Maiya ('little mother') is the mother-goddess of the Dangaura Tharu, created by Gurbaba to be his wife once the earth had been raised. From this first couple, the Tharu say, all men and women descend. Under her by-name Debi ('the Goddess') she is, in Krauskopff's analysis, the immanent and active divinity present in the village and among its people, standing in deliberate contrast to the remote and transcendent Gurbaba whose seat lies far off at Harikabilas. She is thus at once a cosmogonic ancestress and the living tutelary goddess of the settlement.
Domains
- motherhood ancestry
- village protection
Powers
- to be the ancestral mother of all Tharu
- to dwell immanently within the village and its people
Epithets
- DebiGisèle Krauskopff, Maîtres et possédés: les rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Népal) (Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1989). (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: GurbabaMaiya is the wife of the creator Gurbaba, who fashioned her; together they are the first Tharu couple.Drone P. Rajaure, 'Tharus of Dang: Tharu Religion', Kailash IX(1): 61-96 (1982). (secondary)
Sources
- Maiya (also called Debi) is the Tharu mother-goddess and consort of the creator Gurbaba, the ancestress of the Tharu and the immanent goddess of the village.: Drone P. Rajaure, 'Tharus of Dang: Tharu Religion', Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies IX(1): 61-96 (1982). (secondary); Gisèle Krauskopff, Maîtres et possédés: les rites et l'ordre social chez les Tharu (Népal) (Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1989). (secondary)