Lanjia Saora

(map)

When the flood came, the Dead put into a gourd seed and earth and a brother and sister. When they emerged after floating on the waters, the brother and sister lay together. The sun hid itself at the sight. The Dead remade the earth from dirt brought by the crab, and they showed the brother and sister how to make clearings and sow seeds, as the Saora still do. The Saora were the first of all mankind, without castes or clans to divide them.

Verrier Elwin, Myths of Middle India (London: Oxford University Press, 1949), 43.

Kittung's rat burrowed beneath the mountains, and water surged up from the Underworld and submerged the earth. But Kittung and Kittungboi survived in a gourd. The great Kittung in the sky made a crow and sent it exploring. It found the gourd and told Kittung where it was.

From Kittung and Kittungboi in the gourd, Rama and Bhimo were born. One day, Bhimo said, "I want to relieve myself." Rama told him, "Do it on my head." Then he took the excrement and threw it into the water, which immediately dried up. They saw that mountains and rivers had been created where the rat had heaped up soil and dug hollows. Rama and Bhimo were still afraid to walk on the new world, so they first sent out a hen, then a pig, then a buffalo. Seeing that the earth bore the weight, they set out.

Soon Bhimo said, "I want to piss." Rama, knowing that the world would be drowned again if he did, said, "Piss in my ear." Bhimo did so in Rama's left ear, and two girls were born from his right ear. They became the wives of Rama and Bhimo.

One day, Bhimo climbed on the back of a horse. Rama though, "he will be more important than me," and went to a mountain to live. He had a blacksmith make him an axe. One day he met Kittung and showed him how to clear the forest and plant crops. The Saora are the children of Rama. Bhimo is the father of the Rajas and Bissoyi chieftains.

Verrier Elwin, Myths of Middle India (London: Oxford University Press, 1949), 43-44.

Two gourds hung from a vine which grew on Karmasi Mountain. When the earth sank below the waters, these gourds floated. In one, a boy was born, and in the other, a girl. One day, the gourds broke open. The boy said to the girl, "Tear off a scrap of your clothes, and I will use it to make the world." The girl tore off all her clothes except for two hand-breadths, with which she covered her privates. The boy laid the cloth on gourd seeds which floated on the water; then he and the girl became naked and danced on the cloth until the earth was fully formed. The boy grew lustful when he saw the girl's naked body, and he lay with her. From them, all mankind were born. Because the girl wore little cloth, the Saora wear only half a cloth today.

Verrier Elwin, Myths of Middle India (London: Oxford University Press, 1949), 474.