Gondi
names 31objects 20ISO 639-3 gon
Spoken in Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh).
tribal 30 · borrowed 1
See the Gondi sky on the chart →
The sky in Gondi
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samdur, Samudar | Auriga | the sea Comes overhead at 4 a.m. in late May and is the sign that the rains are coming and farming begins. Its brightness is a forecast: bright means a good monsoon and the Gonds sow cotton and other water-hungry crops, dull means a weak one and they sow crops that need less water. | tribal |
| Khayan | Centaurus | — | tribal |
| Kayshar, Kaysaar; Bahari, Bohari; Jhadani, Jhadu; Bhimal Saat | Comets | a broom; Bhimal's sword A comet is the weapon of the great god Bhimal Pen, used to cleanse the sins of the world, and is therefore a good omen — the gods are sweeping away or cutting down the evil. In some villages Kayshar names the Pleiades instead. | tribal |
| Farayin / Farain | Directions taken from the sky | Farayin at Nimni, Farain at Matharjun. Two of fifteen villages. | tribal |
| Kalvada / Kalwada | Directions taken from the sky | Kalvada at Nimni, Kalwada at Matharjun. At Kesalapur the north is held to be inauspicious (p. 35), and burials are laid with the head to the south because, in the informants' words, bad people come from the north. | tribal |
| Silalin / Shilain; Sukral | Directions taken from the sky | Silalin at Nimni and Shilain at Matharjun; Sukral was given for east at Kharmat (p. 36). Names for the four quarters were recorded in two of fifteen villages. | tribal |
| Talvada / Talwada; Rakshas Disha | Directions taken from the sky | Talvada at Nimni, Talwada at Matharjun. At Lodha the south is called Rakshas Disha (p. 38). | tribal |
| Irukna Mara, Irukmara | Figures with no secure modern identification | the mahua tree Its appearance at 3 a.m. marks the season for collecting mahua flowers (Madhuca longifolia). | tribal |
| Khala | Figures with no secure modern identification | the grain-crushing circle The animal-powered threshing floor, where a bullock walks a circle round a centre post — a bright star at the centre with fainter ones around it. | tribal |
| Koropadera | Figures with no secure modern identification | a tool used to make buttermilk A good omen. Recorded at Matharjun and listed in Table 6 as an item of its own, in one of fifteen villages. | tribal |
| Murda; Duf; Shika; Ladavya | Leo and Virgo | the corpse; the drum-bearer; the leader of the procession; the weeping women The body of Leo is a dead man, head at Eta Leonis, one hand at Algieba and the other at Regulus, legs at Delta and Theta Leonis. Delta Leonis is the pall-bearer, the stars of Virgo are the procession, and the whole thing moves west to east across the sky. | tribal |
| Sukum, Sukir, Huko, Tara; Sukum Pelkta, Huko Pelkat, Tara Urungta | Meteors and shooting stars | star; star excreta Meteors are the excrement of the stars, or in some villages souls falling back from their holy places in the sky. | tribal |
| Topli, Topali | Orion | a basket The basket of seed used for sowing the fields that Tipan has ploughed. | tribal |
| Naagarda, Nangar, Nangal, Nangir | Orion's Belt | the plough Belt plus sword read as a plough; with Taurus, Orion's eastern shoulder, Lepus and Sirius it makes a whole farming scene. | tribal |
| Tipan | Orion's Belt | Its arrival in the early night sky signals the farming season; when Tipan appears at sunset the monsoon is coming. | tribal |
| Michu; Vinchu | Scorpius | the scorpion Michu is held responsible for producing the corpse that appears in Leo. | tribal |
| Purad (Hola); Mes | Sirius | a bird; its eggs Orion throws a stone — the Pleiades — at the bird, so that the hunter can take the eggs. The survey does not record whether he hit it. | tribal |
| Tiva | Sirius | the stool a farmer stands on to winnow The implement from which grain is dropped into the wind so that the husk blows away. | tribal |
| Medi; Kotela | The Hyades | Kotela: the bat used to beat grain out of the husk Medi is described as a bright star at the centre of a ring of fainter ones, likened to the set-up for crushing grain with a bullock (khala). It rises between 9 and 10 pm in the season from Kartik to Maho. | tribal |
| Sagur, Sagarpath, Dhor Sari, Murana Sagur, Pandhan, Hari, Sadak, Marg, Rasta | The Milky Way | the road; the path of the animals Understood as the great path of animal migration. | tribal |
| Jango, Chandal, Nalend / Nalen / Nanleg | The Moon | The month runs from new moon to new moon. New moon to full moon is Avas and full moon to new moon is Punvi (Zashinagar, p. 36). Eleven of fifteen villages. | tribal |
| Kondor | The Moon | A forecast, and read against the intuition: when the ring sits close to the Moon the rain is far off, and when it stands well away from it the rain is near (Mohagaon, p. 37). Four of fifteen villages. | tribal |
| Kayshar / Kaysar; Bahari / Bahri | The Pleiades | the broom Given as the Pleiades at Kesalapur, Kaweli and Lodha (pp. 35, 37, 38). | tribal |
| Kutpari, Mogari, Mongari, Thengari, Mundari | The Pleiades | a bat — the wooden bat used to beat grain out of the husk | tribal |
| Lingo, Purbaal, Bera, Vera, Din, Dinad, Suryal | The Sun | Names for the Sun and the Moon were given in 11 of the 15 villages (Table 6, p. 40) — the sixth most widely held item in the survey. The paper records no Gond knowledge of solar eclipses. | tribal |
| Dhruva Tara; Mout Tara | The pole star | Dhruva's star; the umbilical star | borrowed |
| Kamarpatta; Gulel | The rainbow | At Matharjun a rainbow appeared while the survey was in the village and the informants named it Kamarpatta on the spot (p. 35). At Chalisbodi it is Gulel, and the paper adds that it is also called the bow of a bow and arrow (p. 37). | tribal |
| Kalher, Kalir, Kalhad; Muvir Kaler | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | thieves; three thieves The three who mean to steal the old woman's cot the moment she sleeps. In one village the three are instead Poyi, a nobleman, his wife Poyatar and his kotwal, moving towards their salvation. | tribal |
| Katul; Sedona Katul | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | a cot; the old woman's cot The four bowl stars are a cot whose four legs are of gold, silver, inferior silver and copper, counted anticlockwise. The old woman must never fall asleep, because thieves are waiting to take the cot; and if she sleeps — that is, if the Dipper sets — the world ends. Saptarshi is the reference point from which the Gonds locate everything else in the sky. | tribal |
| Poyi; Poyatar; Kotwal | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | a noble man; his wife; his assistant At Kopariya the three trailing stars are not thieves but a nobleman, his wife and his village officer, approaching the cot for salvation after doing good on earth; the cot itself is called Kutil there and is the path of salvation (p. 37). | tribal |
| Jevan Sukum (Jevan Tara, Dohan Chandani); Pahat Sukum (Pahat Sukir, Pahat Tara) | Venus as morning star | the dinner star; the dawn star Jevan is the meal: the star that rises in the east in the evening and says it is time to eat, also the star that says it is time to milk the cow. Pahat Sukum stands overhead at 4 a.m. and says it is time to start work. | tribal |
Sources
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Table 5 row 6, p. 39 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Matharjun village account, p. 35, and Table 6, p. 40 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Table 5 row 2, p. 39 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Table 5 row 3, p. 39 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, village accounts, pp. 35, 37 and 38 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Table 5 row 1, p. 39 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Table 5 row 8, p. 39 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Table 5 row 15, p. 39, and the Kopariya village account, p. 37 link