On

On, often written Ön, is the male god of Amnodr, the Toda land of the dead, located to the west of and below the Nilgiri plateau. In the creation story he and his consort Pinakurs set an iron bar across the Kundah hills; standing at one end On drew the sacred buffalo out of the earth, the first Toda man rising up clinging to the tail of the last of them, while Pinakurs at the other end drew out the ordinary herd. With his sister Teikirzi, who rules the living, On is reckoned one of the two foremost Toda divinities; having ordered creation he passed to Amnodr to reign over the souls of the dead.

Domains

• land of the dead
• creation
• sacred buffalo

Powers

• to draw the sacred buffalo and the first man up out of the earth
• to receive and rule the souls of the Toda dead in Amnodr

Epithets

• Ö·nMurray B. Emeneau, Toda Grammar and Texts (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 155, 1984) (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: TeikirziOn is the brother of the goddess Teikirzi; the two are the chief divinities of the Toda and the joint creators of the sacred buffalo and the first man, he ruling the dead and she the living.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)
• spouse: PinakursOn and his wife Pinakurs went together to the Kundahs and set up the iron bar from which they drew the buffalo, On bringing forth the sacred herd and Pinakurs the ordinary herd.W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (Macmillan, 1906) (secondary)

Sources

• On (Ön) is the Toda male god of Amnodr, the land of the dead; with his sister Teikirzi he created the sacred buffalo and the first Toda before withdrawing to rule the dead.: 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)