Kwoten
Toda · deity · Toda traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kwoten is a deified Toda culture-hero whose legends, recorded by Rivers, ascribe to him the origin of many Toda customs. He is said to have disappeared mysteriously from the world after his union with a female deity, and is thereafter counted among the gods of the hills. His cycle of exploits belongs to the wider class of Toda hero-tales in which men of the originating age, having shaped some institution of later life, pass into the company of the divine.
Domains
- culture hero
- hill god
Powers
- to originate many of the customs and observances of the Toda
- to pass mysteriously from the world after union with a goddess
Sources
- Kwoten is a Toda culture-hero, the reputed originator of many Toda customs, who vanished after union with a female deity and is now revered as a god.: W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (Macmillan, 1906) (secondary); Anthony R. Walker, 'Toda', in Paul Hockings (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. III: South Asia (G. K. Hall, 1992) (secondary)