India: Living with tigers

Tiger cults: How local beliefs and practices shape human-wildlife coexistence in rural India

The sacred and dangerous Tiger is deeply rooted in the beliefs, myths and history of the Indian sub-continent. All over its habitat, the Bengal Tiger and shades of its existence can be seen finely woven with the local culture and tradition.

Were-tigers, tigerman, tiger goddesses and tiger gods, local beliefs and practices shape human-wildlife coexistence in India. Because communities that share space with tigers view the striped animals as “beasts”, “protectors”, “owners”, “family” or as “vehicles of the gods”. The tribal tiger takes different shapes that echo through India’s forests out of fear and hope.

Scheduled Tribes in India

In India, there are 705 ethnic groups living across 20 states, of estimated 104 million or 8.6% of the national population. This people are officially recognized as “Scheduled Tribes” in the Constitution, Article 366 (25) and Article 342. There are many more ethnic groups that are not officially recognized, therefore, the total number of the tribal population is higher than the official figure.

The Scheduled Tribes are usually referred to as Adivasis, which literally means Indigenous Peoples or original inhabitants. The term was coined in the 1930s and is derived from the Hindi word “adi” which means “of earliest times” or “from the beginning” and “vasi” meaning inhabitant or resident.

They possess distinct identities and cultures linked to certain territories, often forests, that is why they are also called Forest tribes or Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFD).

Tigers and other wildlife are intertwined with faith, folklore and myths of Adivasis.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

Tribes in India have their own traditions, cultural heritage and folklore. The life and economy of the tribal people are intimately connected with the forests (living in and around forested areas).

They may rely on forests for a variety of purposes, including hunting and gathering, agriculture, pastoralism, and non-timber forest products such as honey, medicinal plants, and bamboo.

Forest dwellers are classified into Primitive tribes, Nomadic tribes and Semi-nomadic tribes. The Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 recognizes the rights of the forest-dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources for various needs, including livelihood, health ( medicinal plants), habitation, and other socio-cultural needs. Their religion and folklore are woven round the spirits of the forest.

Map: Human – tiger coexistence in India

The map shows most of the tribal populations (adivasis) and cultures of the Indian subcontinent within the different states of India and where tiger-human coexistence takes place.

The largest concentrations of Indigenous Peoples are found in the seven northeastern states of India, and the so-called “central tribal belt” that stretches from Rajasthan to West Bengal.

Tiger distribution range in India

The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) distribution range is shown where tiger-human coexistence happens:

• Shivalik Hills, Gangatic Plains (Shivalik hills, the Bhabhar tract and the Terai plains – Nepal and India) It traverses across the political boundaries of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar) ,

• The Brahmaputra flood plains (and Upper Bengal Dooars) and
• the Northeastern Hills (Sikkim and the Seven Sisters of India – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura).

• The Sundarbans (the world’s largest mangrove forest located at the estuarine phase of Ganges and Brahmaputra river system spreading across Bangladesh and West Bengal, East India).

• Central India highlands into the Eastern Ghats ( a range of mountains along India’s eastern coast. It traverses across the political boundaries of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan).

• The Deccan Plateau is bounded on the east and west by the Ghats:
  • the Eastern Ghats ( south of Andhra Pradesh) and
  • the Western Ghats (Sahyadri), a range of mountains along the western coast of the Indian peninsula. This landscape traverses across the political boundaries of Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

So far, 58 Tiger Reserves have been established in India.

Tiger – human coexistence in India

India’s tiger conservation strategy combines two approaches:

some areas are strictly protected reserves (core area or critical tiger habitats) , while others are multi-use landscapes (buffer zones) where tigers and local communities, Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers, share space.

An adult Bengal tiger typically has a home range of 40–150 sq.km., depending on factors such as sex and location.

The core area usually has a legal status of National Park or Wildlife Sanctuary. It is the critical habitat of tigers, co-predators and prey animals with favorable ecological conditions to ensure long-term success of the species.

No human activity save for conservation-related or park-management related activities are permitted in the core area. Everyday tasks of wood collection, grazing and utilization of forest produce is banned.

Tourism is permitted, however according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines, only up to 20% is available for Wildlife Tourism.

Further, adjoining or surrounding areas, give also habitat for the wildlife, which inevitably spills over from the declared core zone. This ecologically sensitive zone (buffer, coexistence area, multiple-use area) is required around the core zone for sustaining tigers mature enough to create their own space and old displaced tigers.

Ongoing village Relocation Programs in Tiger Reserves

The success story of the tiger is not one of wilderness untouched – it’s a tale of complex coexistence with humans. At the heart of this are the Voluntary relocation of people and settlements in and around Tiger Reserves across India, to reduce poaching threats and for habitat preservation.

The relocation process goes on since 1973.

Compensatory land or money is provided as aid from the government along with logistical assistance for improved accommodations, farm land, employment (cultural tourism, forest guards), health, and education services. (Revised Guidelines for the Ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, 2008′ and subsequent additional guidelines)

Voluntary relocation is not any more, now, C.R. Bijoy explains:

More than 89,800 families from 848 villages, mostly belonging to the Adivasi community that is entitled to forest rights, are to be summarily relocated from Critical Tiger Habitats (CTHs) or the core area of 54 tiger reserves. The exact number of people residing in the core area is as yet unknown.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) directed all 19 tiger-bearing states on June 19, 2024 to relocate them on a ‘priority basis’, calling for action plans and regular progress reports.

Nearly 2.5 lakh (250000) of the 4 lakh (400000) now scheduled for relocation are from the central Indian tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. (2022-23 for rural areas)

The challenge of Human Rights, Political pressure and vested interest groups remains.

The Tribal Protector – The tiger is worshiped as a god.

The tiger commands fear and respect across different regions and cultures of Asia.

Traveling across India and Nepal we have been told stories and anecdotes about the beast – both inspiring and terrifying.

We saw marks and stitches from attacks and shrines for lost family members.

Although there is an element of fear associated with the big cat, for most animist communities, there is also trust in the big cat as a protector. An example of this can be seen in the story of a little boy who was once looked after by a leopard.

The little boy fell asleep at a Tiger-god shrine during a ritual and was forgotten there. When his family went back to fetch him they found a big cat sitting guard over the sleeping child. Once villagers approached the shrine, the predator went away, having done no harm.

It is believed that the leopard kept watch over the boy, because it knew that the people worship him.
Such narratives, both of the past and present reinforce the belief among people that their faith in the carnivore-god is what keeps them safe.

Adivasis are the “first inhabitants” of India who mostly live in remote, difficult to reach regions of the country. Given that tribes in the country live in or close to forested areas, it is only natural that the tiger features strongly in their folklore.

Where the most tigers survive today is due to the numerous sacrifices made by the villagers agreeing to relocate from their established homes in the various Tiger Reserves at the behest of the Indian Government.

Tiger cults of Central India

Not all tribes revere the tiger, in the East of India, diverse communities traditionally hunt big cats like tigers and leopards, ritually as well as protection and economic gain.

Worship of the tiger god under different names is prevalent in many tribes of India.

Indian tree spirits, says Mr. Crookes in his Popular Religion of Northern India, these tree ghosts are very numerous. Local shrines are constructed under trees ; and in one particular tree, the Bira, the jungle tribes of Mirzapur locate Bagheswar, the tiger god, one of their most dreaded deities.

In the Central Provinces of India, a favorite household deity is Dulha Deo, the spirit of a young bridegroom who was carried off by a tiger on his way to his wedding.

When a marriage is celebrated, a miniature coat, a pair of shoes, and a bridal crown are offered to Dulha Deo, and sometimes also the model of a swing on which the child may amuse himself. Inside the house Dulha Deo is represented by a date and a nut tied up in a small piece of cloth and hung on a peg in the wall.

When worship is to be performed, the date and nut are taken down and set on a platform, and offerings of food and other articles are laid before the deity on leaf plates. On the occasion of a marriage, or the birth of a first child, or in every third year, a goat is offered to Dulha Deo.

Baghadeva of the Warli tribes

The Warli tribes live in the North of Mumbai in Maharashtra on tracts of land along the Gujarat border. They worship the tiger as a symbol of fertility and is believed to bring a good harvest. Rituals involve the worship of trees, stones, rivers and statues of tigers surrounded by flowers, birds, and snakes.

They practiced subsistence agriculture using the slash and burn method, and rarely used fertilizers, hence believing that Mother Earth had her own method of fertilizing herself and man-made fertilizers would do harm to it.

Wagle is a totemic family name, while Waghmare is a family name once borne as a title of a tiger killer.

Waghya is the god of the Warli tribe, represented as a shapeless stone. He is also the main deity of the Dhangar, Bapujipoa (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh) and Rathwa of the Kolis (some say Bhil peopele) across central-west India (Gujarat, Maharashtra).

This tribes belief, that the tiger will bring rainfall to the farmers in need and any insult to the tiger will result in a drought, making it a powerful symbol of fertility.

Some believe, so Hastings James, 1912, that spirits rob the grain till it is measured, thinking they cannot be found out, but when once it has been measured they are afraid of detection. It is considered unlucky for any one who has ridden on an elephant to enter the threshing-floor, but a person who has ridden on a tiger brings luck.

Consequently the forest Gonds and Baigas, if they capture a young tiger and tame it, will take it round the ‘country, and the cultivators pay them a little to give their children a ride on it.

Phallic-shaped wooden and stone images were daubed in red to indicate their extreme sanctity and were placed as symbols of fertility, not only for the crop fields but also for marriages and the birth of children.

In Baroda, at the worship of Vagli Deo, the tiger-god, a man is covered with a blanket, bows to the image, and walks round it seven times.

During this performance the worshipers slap him on the back. He then tries to escape to the forest, pursued by the children, who fling balls of clay at him, and finally bring him back, the rite ending with feasting and drinking.

Warli paintings are indicative of the deep links of the tribals with the tigers. In this way, the tiger also signified a vital link between diverse cultures and the magic of the tiger determines the relationship between man and tiger in many parts of tribal India.

In Warli paintings the tiger is depicted as a warm and friendly animal sitting or passing through the village. Warlis have always had faith in their tiger god Baghadeva.

Carved wooden statues of tigers with the sun, moon and the milky-way in the background can be seen all over their habitat.

Warlis believe that the tiger is supreme to all other organisms and that the universe exists only because of the tiger.

They are known to commence important life and social events such as weddings, naming a child and building new homes only after receiving blessings from Waghoba.

On how Waghoba shrines came to be

The ethnographic fieldwork of Nair R, Dhee, Patil O, Surve N, Andheria A, Linnell JDC and Athreya V, in: Sharing Spaces and Entanglements With Big Cats: The Warli and Their Waghoba in Maharashtra, India. 2021, shed light on the origin of waghoba shrines:

“While there is no single origin story of this deity, we came across multiple parallel narratives that describe myths or instances that gave birth to the deity. Stitching together fragments of stories from different interviews, the authors learnt of the origin stories that narrate how the deity came into being.
These narratives illustrate a woman, typically a princess or chief ’s daughter, who gives birth to a baby out of wedlock. When his mother is out doing chores, the baby shape-shifts into a tiger and hunts the villager’s livestock.

Troubled and scared by the tiger, the villagers decide to kill the tiger. To save her child, the mother mediates between the angry villagers and her baby. In the negotiation that follows, she asks her child to go away into the forest and in exchange, the people would install shrines for the wagh, and once a year give an offering of the animals he likes (such as chickens and goats) to make peace.

That is the story of how the wagh then took sanctuary in the forest and Waghoba shrines came to be established across all villages.”

The festival of Waghbaras which literally translates to wagh-festival is observed annually, for two days, to appease Waghoba (on the first day of the Hindu festival of Diwali based on the lunar calendar). The festival entails celebrations, rituals and traditions to appease Waghoba at the local shrine.

People offers a variety of things as per their ability, from flowers, coconuts, and incense to toddy (fermented palm drink), chickens and goats. The heads of the sacrificed animals are kept at the shrine and the rest of the meat is distributed among people.

The idols are also smeared with vermilion paste, which is considered auspicious. Orally passed down chants and songs dedicated to Waghoba are presented throughout the festival days and nights.

During worship rituals, the bhagat, the local equivalent of a shaman, is believed to take the form of a wagh by entering into a state of trance. Shamans are also sometimes believed to be capable of retrieving medicinal plants from the mountains in this tiger- state and to have a strong intuition or may prophesize.

Bagheshwar or Bagesur Dev of the Baiga tribes

The Baiga ethnic group found in the forested heart of India primarily lives in Madhya Pradesh, and in smaller numbers in the surrounding states of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

They worship Bagheshwar or Bagesur Dev and consider the tiger their spiritual brother and protector of the forest.

They conduct elaborate ceremonies to seek the tiger’s blessings for their crops and safety.

Were-tigers are magical shape shifters – who attack people:

The modern English compound term weretiger (also spelt as were-tiger, wer-tiger) is formed by the union of the Old English word wer- ‘man’ and the word ‘tiger’ on the analogy of the term werewolf.

Therianthropy, derived from the Greek thērion (meaning ‘wild beast’) and anthr ōpos (meaning ‘human being’), is the general category of shape-shifting in which man or woman is able to transform into animal and back.

In Asia, the southern regions of China, India, Nepal and Indonesia the tiger (or, alternatively, the leopard), the most formidable wild carnivorous mammal, is the most common form assumed by alleged shape-shifters. Francesco Brighenti, in: Kradi Mliva, explains.

In 1957, Arthur N. W.Powell, reported a version of the irreversible transformation yarn told to him by two old shikari friends in Balaghat, one a Baiga, the other a Gond. To slay a real man-eater of the neighborhood, they said, a banyan, or moneylender, transformed himself into a tiger by swallowing a powder given to him by a sadhu for the task.

Sadly he entrusted the antidote to his pretty young wife. After killing and eating her, he became “the
most dreaded man-eater in human memory,” claiming thousands of lives. (Newman, Patrick, 1961–
Tracking the weretiger : supernatural man-eaters of India, China and Southeast Asia. 2012.)

How a Baiga priest lays the ghosts of men who have been killed by tigers, and so checks the ravages of the ferocious animals

In the country where the Baigas dwell they are regarded as the most ancient inhabitants and accordingly they usually act as priests of the indigenous gods.

Certainly there is reason to believe that in this part of the hills they are predecessors of the Gonds, towards whom they occupy a position of acknowledged superiority, refusing to eat with them and lending them their priests or enchanters for the performance of those rites which the Gonds, as newcomers, could not properly celebrate.

Among these rites the most dangerous is that of laying the ghost of a man who has been killed by a tiger.

Man-eating tigers have always been numerous in Mandla, the breed being fostered by the large herds of cattle which pasture in the country during a part of the year, while the withdrawal of the herds for another part of the year, to regions where the tigers cannot follow them, instigates the hungry brutes to pounce from their covers in the tall grass on passing men and women.

When such an event has taken place with fatal results, the Baiga priest or enchanter proceeds to the scene of the catastrophe, provided with articles, such as fowls and rice, which are to be offered to the ghost of the deceased.

Arrived at the spot, he makes a small cone out of the blood-stained earth to represent either the dead man or one of his living relatives.

His companions having retired a few paces, the priest drops on his hands and knees, and in that posture performs a series of antics which are supposed to represent the tiger in the act of destroying the man, while at the same time he seizes the lump of blood-stained earth in his teeth.

One of the party then runs up and taps him on the back. This perhaps means that the tiger is killed or otherwise rendered harmless, for the priest at once lets the mud cone fall into the hands of one of the party. It is then placed in an ant-hill and a pig is sacrificed over it.

Next day a small chicken is taken to the place, and after a mark, supposed to be the dead man’s name, has been made on the fowl’s head with red ochre, it is thrown back into the forest, while the priest cries out

“Take this and go home.”

The ceremony is thought to lay the dead man’s ghost, and at the same time to keep the tiger from doing any more harm.

For the Baigas believe that if the ghost were not charmed to rest, it would ride on the tiger’s head and incite him to fresh deeds of blood, guarding him at the same time from the attacks of human foes by his preternatural watchfulness. (Captain J. Forsyth, The Highlands of Central India. 1871.)

Olthwa – Tigerman – tigerspirits

Tribal groups inhabiting the Maikal Hills in Chhattisgarh, primarily of Gond and Baiga ethnicity, believe in the existence of tigermen, referred to as olthwa, who are often identified with the spirits of evil men who died due to tiger attacks, and therefore could not attain peace in the realm of ancestors. Tigers possessed by an olthwa spirit are distinguished by their craving for human blood; they do not kill their victims, merely wounding them to drink their blood.

The tribals consider themselves descendants of the Tiger and maintain a form of respect towards the animal. They believed their ancestors’ spirits dwelt in the tiger. It is also invoked as a guardian of their crops against deer/boar foraging – a balancer of herbivore numbers and dispatched to the tribals relief by Mother Nature herself.

Though many of the younger generation would not have seen the tiger, it is present in Baiga art.

In March 2022, Jodhaiya Bai received the Nari Shakti Puraskar for women’s empowerment and was then awarded the Padma Shri in March 2023, the highest civilian honor for cultural and artistic achievement by the President of India.

Bagheshwar of the Bharia tribes

The Bharias from Madhya Pradesh, believe in Bagheshwar or Bagheshur – the tiger god. The name combines “Bagh” (tiger) and “Ishwar” (god) in Hindi. Because of Bagheshwar’s protection, no Bharia will be eaten by a tiger. During Diwali, they place a bowl of gruel behind their houses for the tiger. In the morning, an empty bowl signifies that the house has been visited by Bageshwar.

Bagh Deo or Waghoba of the Gond tribes

The Gondi people are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha. They worship a tiger god named Bagh Deo or Waghoba, who is considered the savior and protector of his devotees.

There is a tiger or Bagh clan, the members of which consider themselves descendants of the fearful predator. Waghoba worship is not just a religious ritual; it is a deeply personal practice shaped by individual experiences of loss and reverence.

A person who has been killed by a tiger or a cobra may receive a general veneration with the object of appeasing his spirit and transforming him into a village god.

In Chandrapur, Ashraf Shaikh explains: it is common to find Waghoba shrines erected at spots where a tiger killed a person – serving as a memorial and protective measure.

The Govari community adds a unique dimension to this practice.

When a tiger kills a woman, a statue of Waghin or Waghaai, the female equivalent of Waghoba, is installed at the attack site. Offerings are, typical for goddesses, like woman’s attire, such as a saree and a mangalsutra (wedding necklace).

If a tiger makes trouble, a stone is set up in his honor, and he receives a small offering.

If a Gond, when starting a journey in the morning, should meet a tiger, he should return and postpone his journey. But if he meets a tiger during the journey, it is considered good luck.

Gonds think they can attain strength by carrying tigers’ shoulder bones on their shoulders or by drinking the dust of tigers’ bones pounded in water.” (R.V. Russell. Tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India).

The tiger is revered in the Sarwen Saga, and it is regarded as a relative.

Garima Malik and Sabina Sethi

Gond weretiger-lore

Gond tales about tiger-transformation describe the metamorphosis from man to tiger in terms of physical shape-shifting and as a supernatural ability which can only be manifested by an act of profane – that is, non-religious – magic.

In some such stories, for example, a man rubs his back in a particular manner against a white ant-hill and is then magically turned into a tiger on the spot; in other cases, he eats a certain root or alternatively sniffs, or else rubs on his body, a certain drug prepared with some medicinal plants, roots, etc. and is then magically converted into a tiger on the spot.

There is always some kind of a material medium enabling the shape-shifter to get physically transformed into a feline. In this connection, it cannot be excluded that beliefs in the efficacy of some as yet undetermined form of Tantric magic may in the past have contributed to the shaping of both the Munda and Gond weretiger-lore. Francesco Brighenti, in: Kradi Mliva, explains.

We occasionally find among the northern tribes the habit of tearing the victim in pieces, as in the Gond sacrifice to Bagheshvar, the tiger-god.
The nuptial, funeral, and similar ceremonies are performed under the lead of aged relations. But generally in every village there is a man who is supposed to have the power of charming tigers and preventing by spells (mantra) such calamities as drought, cholera, etc. He is called a Baiga. (Hastings James. 1912.)

The boṅga – tigerspirt of the Munda

In the late 19th century the Munda and the Ho tribes people believed that certain men, initiated into the cult of specific divine spirits (boṅga) of a malign nature, could physically turn into tigers or other prey animals.

These men, considered powerful sorcerers, were pointed out as a danger to the entire community and were sometimes killed, without any form of trial, by the relatives of those who had fallen victim to a tiger ambush.

It was believed that these individuals could devour entire domestic animals during the night, roaring like tigers. (E.T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnography of Bengal [reprint, Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyaya, 1960]).

Among the Mundas of the Chhotanagpur Plateau the spirits of tiger victims are called baghaia boṅga. Such unpacified spirits, the Mundas assert, compel the animals that ended their earthly existence to attack other humans, or else they roam in groups in the jungle, hunting humans using tigers as hounds.

The baghia – tigerspirts of the Kharias

The Kharias refer to the spirit of an individual killed by a tiger as baghia, who, after the destruction of his or her body, has succeeded in gaining control over the animal that attacked him or her. The tigers thus controlled tend to attack humans and domestic animals. Tiger spirits can be appeased and driven away through community or family rituals. Roy and R.C. Roy, The Kharias (Ranchi: Man in India Office, 1937)

Gond man – eater lore

Colonial literature reported incidents of were-tigers turned man-eaters from 1931. L. A. Cammiade drives from ” The Terror of Danauli,” by Leonard Handley, where he describes how, in the Central Provinces, he tracked down and shot at close quarters a man-eater that had killed over thirty people.

No whisper seems to have reached Mr. Handley’s ears that the man-eater he was hunting was not really a tiger, but a man who by magic had assumed that form for nefarious ends. That such, indeed, was the firm opinion of the local jungle people, the Gonds, is evident from several of the details recorded by Mr. Handley.

“These figures are said to be tiger deities, who had to be propitiated after the slaying of the man-eater.” […]

The ceremony that was performed at the feet of the deities shown in the illustration savors more of an act of thanksgiving for deliverance from the ravages of the man-eater.

The purely human shape of the figures and their peaceful attitude do not indicate blood-thirsty gods, but strongly remind me of the statues set up by modem Koi to the spirits of notable ancestors. […] Filial prayer is offered at these memorial stones to the spirits of the ancestors. The usual prayer of one of these semi-savage jungle people [sic] was, in the suppliant’s own words,to the following effect:

” I am starting on my journey through the forest to the weekly market. You are my ancestors, and I am your child. You must see that I get a good price for the tamarind I am selling, and you must protect
“me from the tiger on the way.”

L. A. Cammiade. Man-Eaters and Were-Tigers. In the Illustrated London News, 30th May, 1931, pp. 928-29.

Gond sacrifices for tiger protection

Among the Gonds of the Central Provinces in India the sun, or, as they call him, Narayan Deo, is a household deity, he has a little platform inside the threshold of the house; says Frazer, 1919, and continues:

He may be worshipped every two or three years, but if a snake appars in the house, or any one falls ill, they think Narayan Deo is impatient and perform his worship.

A young pig is offered to him and is sometimes fattened up beforehand by feeding it on rice. The pig is laid on its back over the threshold of the door, and a number of men press a heavy beam of wood on its body till it is crushed to death.

They cut off the tail and testicles, and bury them near the threshold.

The body of the pig is washed in a hole dug in the yard, and it is then cooked and eaten.

They sing to the god:

Eat, Narayan Deo, eat this rice and meat, and protect us from all tigers, snakes and bears in our houses protect us from all illnesses and troubles.’

Next day bones and any other remains of the pig are buried in the hole in the compound.

There is a cultural link with some tribes of Northeastern India, namely, the Garos and Khasis of Meghalaya and the Nagas of Nagaland. Indeed, the Garos and Nagas (both speaking Tibeto-Burman languages) and the Khasis (Austroasiatic speakers) each possess a rich weretiger-complex having many aspects in common with that of the Kondhs, chief among which is the notion of a migration of the human soul into the body of a tiger or leopard occurring during sleep

Tiger in Gond paintings

The tradition of Gond painting evolved from ritual storytelling, accompanied by decorating the walls to commemorate special occasions and bring good luck and protection from evil.

Since the Gond artists themselves believe that portraying various deities and scenes from mythology and looking at them brings good luck, particular attention is often given to portraying the tiger, for it is considered among the strongest and most powerful animals in the jungle.

Subhash Vyam’s work Tiger and Aeroplane shows a tiger, cow and birds gazing up at an aeroplane passing overhead in the sky. This is where modern times meet local culture and history.

Bana Dev of the Gond tribe

Artist – Naresh Shyam

In this painting, the painter depicts Tiger Bana Dev who is always ready to protect the devotees. Whenever there is a quarrel between the husband and a wife in the house and the wife tries to escape, the Tiger Dev hides in the street and frightens her and sends the wife back. Sajha tree leaves are also used in marriage. (CC-BY-4.0, edited.)

Chitan Deo of the Muria tribe

The Murias are an Adivasi, scheduled tribe Dravidian community of the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, India and are part of the Gondi people. They worship Chitan Deo, who is a hunting tiger god for them.

The Tiger deity of Bheels and Bhilalas

Kathotiya’s tribals of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, mostly consist of Bheels and Bhilalas – R.V. Russell explains – Kathotia, a group named after a Kathota (a bowl), reveres the tiger god whose idol resides on a little platform on the veranda.

Its members may not join a tiger beat and will not sit up for a tiger over a kill. In the latter case, they believe that the tiger will not come and will be deprived of its food if they do so and all their family members will fall ill.

If a tiger takes away one of their cattle, they think there has been some neglect in their worship of him.

They say that if one meets a tiger in the forest, he should fold his hands and bow down and say

“Maharaj, let me pass”

and the tiger will walk away.

If a tiger is killed within the limits of the village, a Kathotia Kol will throw away all his earthen pots in mourning and shave his head and feed a few men of his sept.”

Some Bhil tribal groups in Gujarat worship a tiger-god named Wagh Dew, believed to reside in the jungle-covered hills. Associated with a feline manifestation of Śhiva, he is primarily invoked for protection against attacks from ferocious beasts.

Among certain Bhil groups, there also exists a myth regarding the tribe’s descent from a tiger ancestor.

Witch-tigers

Spence Lewis,1920, writes:

We find witchcraft most prevalent among the more isolated and least advanced races[sic], like the Kola, Bhils, and Santals.
Witches also take animal forms, especially those of tigers and stories of trials are related at which natives gave evidence that they had tracked certain tigers to their lairs, which upon entering they had found tenanted by a a notorious witch or wizard. For such witch-tigers the usual remedy is to knock out their teeth to prevent their doing any more mischief.

Strangely enough the Indian witch… is very often accompanied by a cat. The cat, say the jungle people, is aunt to the tiger, and taught him everything but how to climb a tree. Zalim Sinn, the famous regent of Kota, believed that cats were associated with witches, and imagining himself enchanted ordered that every cat should be expelled from his province.

The Idu Mishmis have declared parts of their forest land as “Community Conserved Areas” and govern it by them selves. The Bishnoi Tiger Force, is an environmental campaign group, that actively fights against poaching and rescues injured animals in Rajasthan.

Tiger cults of West India

In western India the people had a deep belief that the large cat; a leopard Panthera pardus or a tiger Panthera tigris or both, protected them.

The appearances of the tiger god shrines vary and are made up of wood or rock that are covered with vermilion paste, or stones carved out in the shape of a large cat.

In some areas the large cat is also drawn or carved with other features like the cobra, moon and the sun. Also an image of the tiger is made out of clay is worshiped. At Pench National Park tiger’s pugmarks in clay are worshiped.

Waghoba is known by multiple names such as Waghdev, Waghya, Waghjai, Bagheshwar and Waghjaimata (female form).

Waghoba वाघोबा or Waghya dev

In rural Maharashtra, both tigers and leopards are worshiped as “Waghoba/Waghya dev“.

Wagh is the Marathi word for big cat. The word wagh is used similar to the Hindi word
bagh, which can colloquially refer to both the tiger and the leopard.

“Ba” is a common suffix to indicate respect, a term assigned to an elderly or paternal figure in the community.

Waghoba communities believe that the forest is the realm of the wagh (tiger or leopard) and worship is conducted to appease the big cats so that they do not attack humans within the forest, and also to prevent them from coming into villages.

Waghoba priests claim that at night, the deity comes near the temple as is evident from pug marks which they find the next day.

In order to appease the cats, villagers give sacrificial offering of meat (chicken or goat) in mid-April and in October.

The head of the sacrificed animal is kept at the shrine and the rest of the meat is distributed among people. At a Waghoba temple in Dahibao, South Maharashtra, the villagers spoke to Vidya Athreya and said that once a year the leopard visits the temple and roars.

Waghoba is viewed as the Junglacha Rakhandar, a protector of the forest

Waghro or Vaghro-dev of the Dhangar

Gaudas, Kunbis and Velip are part of Gavli Dhangar communities shepherds, cowherds, buffalo keepers, blanket and wool weavers, butchers and farmers, that live in Maharashtra, northern Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh.

Vidya Athreya, tells us: In Maharshtra, the Dhangars who are pastoralists, and whose livestock often fall prey to the tiger also view the carnivore as a protector of their livestock.

Besides Biroba, a younger brother of Vithoba the Dhangar’s main God, this group also worships Waghdev/Waghjai, Vaghro-dev, Vyaghambar or Waghro , the tiger-god, believing that worshiping Waghdev will protect their sheep from the tigers and leopards.

The Velip community worship the Waghro statue twice a year with the rituals starting at the time of day when the large cat becomes active (around 8 pm) and lasting for about an hour. The Waghro statues, many of which are over 700 years old, are oiled during each ritual which is attended by all the people in the village.

They also mentioned that the tiger or the leopard often calls during the ritual and until about 20 years ago a tiger would accompany them home from the temple as they would hear the calls all the way back to their houses. (Vidya Athreya, in: Monsters or Gods? Narratives of large cat worship in western India. 2018.)

Vagh-khele performance

The tiger is a character in traditional theater forms of different regions of India – somewhere as a mighty divine form, somewhere as a comical figure to add humor to the traditional plays.

The Gauda and Kunbi communities worship the tiger during the festival of Shigmo in Goa through various rituals and folk dances.

The folk dance and theater of Vagh-khele (which traces its roots to the word khel, which means both play and a dramatic performance) is performed by a player wearing a mask and a costume of a tiger/leopard that displays various behavioral patterns of the predator.

The “tiger” first prays to the folk deity Mayegawas and then performs the Vagh-khel, a scene of attacking and killing a little boy. After this, villagers sacrifice a small chicken and then perform the killing of the beast with a gun.

Tiger cults of East India

The ecosystem of the Sundarbans is rich in ecological diversity, and the livelihood of many depends on the produces of the jongol (forest) itself. Lives are in danger each time they visit the swampy mangroves: fear, is indeed as common as water in the Sundarbans.

In addition to dangerous situations with snakes there is the struggle with the tiger in land and the crocodile on water. There is a popular local saying, ‘‘Jale Kumir, Daangay Baagh’’. (the crocodile on water and the tiger inland)

The worldview of the Sundarbans: The tiger in culture and folklore

[In Sundarbans] Nature does not obey the rules:

fish climb trees, the animals drink salt water; the roots of the trees grow up towards the sky instead of down to earth

– and here, the Tiger do not obey  the same rules by which the Tigers elsewhere govern their lives.

Montgomery

In the nineteenth century tigers were killed fueled by stories of man-eating tigers, that developed into myths and legends of startling proportions.

Superstitions were rife among Indians and Europeans alike, and the man-eating tiger also approached the status of a shape-shifting beast, and were-tigers.

Baul-Fakir mantras for tiger protection

Pradip Kumar Mandal explains, in: A Glimpse of Folk Culture and Religion of The Indian Sundarbans. Scintia, 1(1), 26–28. 2023.
The hard- working jungle goers were quite helpless against the man-eaters of Sundarbans. So, magic was practiced as a security measure. The magicians were mentioned in O’Malleys’ Bengal District Gazetteer as ‘Fakirs’. They are now known as ‘Gunin’ or ‘Boule’ or Baul’.

The word ‘Boule’ should be applied to every jungle goer. But now the word is used for the magician. Bauls and Fakirs, frequently referred to as the wandering minstrels and mystics of Bengal (previously undivided Bengal and now, West Bengal and Bangladesh), are known through their enchanting, often enigmatic songs.

Listen to “Nadia, Baul Fakiri Gaan” – sung by Khejmat Fakir

There are several types of mantras in the Sundarbans, such as ‘Peetu,’ ‘Kaachuli,’ ‘Chaalan,’ ‘Jaalan,’ and ‘Lakshman Gondi.’ According to the faith of the folk communities of Sundarbans, each mantra has separate meanings and power. Each Mantra has its peculiar function.

For example, ‘Lakshman Gondi’ would not allow tigers into a specified area. And ‘Chaalan’ would force any tiger to a direction desired by the Gunin.

Though a distinction is often made between the terms Bauls and Fakirs, in that the Bauls have an exclusively Hindu identity while Fakirs, an Islamic one, in reality, theirs is a syncretic faith, a fusion of both Hindu and Islamic practices, and their common belief is that the body is the sole repository of all experience and means to knowledge.

Mantras, according to some magicians, are not to be uttered openly in public because they might cause danger to that place. Boules or Gunins believe and remain careful so that no mantra enters a goat’s ears. Such practices show the indigenous character of the mantras.

Bonbibi and Dakhin Rai of the Sundarban tribes

The tiger goddess, Banbibi is believed to protect the members of the local community from tiger attacks when they gather honey, wood, or fish.

Before entering the tigers realm, the people seek her blessings for protection against the carnivore.

Banbibi is the guardian spirit of the Sundarbans Mangrove Forests of West Bengal who for some was sent by Allah to save people from tigers.

Banbibi is always represented in an attitude of mild conquest, resembling similar representations of Durga.

The people of the Sundarbans think of her as a “forest superpower” who extends her protection to all her worshipers regardless of the community identities.

For the Hindus she is a devi (Bandurga, Byaghradevi, Bandevi or as Banbibi) and for the Muslim Banbibi is a pirani, a sufi saint.

The narratives of Banbibi are found in several texts named as the Bonbibir Keramati (the magical deeds of Bonbibi) or the Bonbibir Jahuranama (glory to Bonbibi).

These texts consist of two major episodes, her battle with Dakkhin Rai and the narrative of Dukhe.

It is believed that the demon king, Dakkhin- Rai, an arch enemy of Banbibi actually appears in disguise of a tiger and attacks human beings. Banbibir Jahuranama narrates that:

A sage living in the forest turned greedy and refused to share any of the forest resources with humans. Through his ascetic power, he took the form of a tiger called Dakshin (Dakkhin) Rai.

He attacked humans who entered the forest. He legitimized the killing as tax payment with life for the products usurped from the forest.

To end the insatiable greed and terror of Dakshin Rai, God chose a young girl, Bon Bibi, who lived in the same forest.

Folklore describes how Bon Bibi saved Dukhe, a boy, from the clutches of Dakshin Rai. After saving Dukhe from Dakshin Rai, Bon Bibi stipulated that nothing more should be extracted from the forest than what is needed to survive.

As the celebrated author Amitav Ghosh writes in his novel “Jungle Nama,” about the lesson that Dukhe learned from Bonbibi:

Grateful forever to his teacher, Bonbibi, who’d taught him the secret of how to be happy: All you need do, is be content with what you’ve got; to be always craving more is a demon’s lot.

Today, any assault or harm is seen as a result of some misbehavior by the affected, in the present or prior birth, for which the person is punished by the tiger.

Attacks can also happen because the laws of the jungle have been broken, like by cutting green trees or just by harming other species.

Bonbibi is worshiped along with her brother Shah Jangali and Dakkhin Rai.

Her festival is celebrated once a year in January or February.

A Muslim fakir performs the Hazat Puja with offerings of Sirni and fowl.

In the villages of Sundarbans, the legend of Bonbibi is enacted as a stage play (Bonbibi-r Palagaan) to invoke Bonbibi’s blessings.

In his novel Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh gives a vivid interpretation of the conflict between the indigenous people of the Sundarbans and the tigers. In the novel, a tiger is accidentally trapped in a livestock pen while trying to carry away a calf.

An angry mob quickly gathers and attacks the incapacitated animal with sharpened staves. A boy thrusts a sharpened bamboo pole through a window and blinds it. Piya, an American cetologist and the central character in the novel, tries her best to save the animal but is helpless in the face of the hostile crowd. Even her associates Horen and Fokir side with the mob and participate in the killing.

Ranjan Chakrabarti, Professor of History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata further writes: Such occurrences are very common in the Sundarbans. The incident portrayed in the novel is illustrative of human-tiger conflict. And the later conversation between Kanai and Piya about the killing of the tiger brings out the essence of the several flashpoints in this complex matter.

Smugglers and poachers, supported by political and business interests and sheltered by local communities, raid the protected forests for valuable exports.

The state exerts its surveillance of the protected forest mainly through the Forest Department, whose officials have been known to exploit their position for private gain, playing a pivotal role in the poaching of timber, deer meat and tiger parts, Ranjan Chakrabarti knows.

Tiger cults of Nord-East India

The Northeast of India is steeped with tiger stories of monstrous tigermen, evil shape-shifters and protecing tiger deities.

The Meitei hunter tribes from Manipur

In Manipur, the tiger was feared but, unlike in other cultures, not widely revered, the overall state policy was to eradicate them.

Known as Pamba or Keirel in earlier times, and simply Kei in the later period, the majestic beast is intrinsic to the worldview of almost all the native communities of the state. The tiger is represented in their narratives of migration and folklore, customs, traditions and institutions.

Khuman Khamba is the hero as well as the protagonist of the Meitei epic poem Khamba Thoibi of the Moirang Shayon legends in the Moirang Kangleirol genres from Ancient Moirang.

The Khoirentak tiger (Meitei: ꯈꯣꯢꯔꯦꯟꯇꯥꯛ ꯀꯤ ꯀꯩꯔꯦꯜ) was a vicious tiger- monster that lived in Khoirentak. The man-eater was killed by Khuman Khamba, when he brought the beast to the capital city of Ancient Moirang, the kings daughter, Thoibi was given to him in marriage.

The Manipuri worldview: The tiger in culture and folklore

The association of the tiger with the Meiteis is as old as their civilization itself. The Meiteis presently constitute a considerable portion of the total population in the state of Manipur, they live also in Assam and Tripura.

Yaiphaba Ningthoujam says, in: Hunted to extinction: Human–tiger interaction in Manipur, India. Manipur University, Imphal. 2024:

The ancient myth of the Meiteis, Panthoibi Khongun, deals with the creation of the universe, the protagonist, Nongpok Ningthou, is depicted as being able to transform himself into a tiger.

Panthoibi, his love and the principal character, is still worshipped, riding a horse or a tiger, as the all-powerful female deity. In Poireiton Khuntokpa, the mythical story of the migration of Poireiton and his companions to the Manipur Valley, what stood in the way between them and the ‘promised land’ was a monstrous man-eating tiger.

As the story goes, a tiger that was hiding in a bush devoured the brave Khomreng, who was asked to lead the way. Only after successfully defeating and driving away the tiger could settlement on the land begin.

Thus, the threat of the tiger to humans has been perceived since the creation of the universe and the settlement of the Meiteis itself, and this persisted until they were completely eradicated.

In fact, the hunting of tigers was taken so seriously in the past that the royal court chronicle of Manipur, the Cheitharol Kumbaba, is replete with instances of them being hunted, mostly under the leadership of the king and his close associates.

Organisations called Keirup, or tiger-clubs, existed all over the kingdom, every village having one. Their main purpose was the ‘ringing and killing’ of tigers as soon as they were located.

Tigers were so abundant and rapacious in Manipur that the state actively supported their systematic hunting until the end of the nineteenth century. Also, rich bounties were placed on the heads of tigers.

After a tiger was captured, in the first half of the nineteenth century, Keiyang Thekpa, was performed.

Literally, the name refers to breaking the spine of a tiger with the bare hands, armed with just a spear, and hence only a few selected men of
valour and kings were allowed to perform this fight.

Men were pitted against the beast in a one-to-one contest for supremacy. Tigers were occasionally made to fight against other animals too.

Due to such persistent killings, coupled with the depletion of their habitat, the number of tigers in Manipur dwindled considerably in the twentieth century, and at present tigers are most probably extinct.

Deep cultural values and beliefs are rooted in Meitei history and folklore, influencing both family and individual behavior. The tiger is ubiquitous as an antagonist in the various folksongs, ballads and stories of Manipur. In most of the lore involving them, a tiger is either the kidnapper or the mauler of the ‘damsel in distress’ and thus must be killed valorously by the male protagonist.

The Meiteis neither revered the tiger nor gave it the cultural prominence that it enjoyed in other societies.

Yaiphaba Ningthoujam

One of the most often repeated folk-tales of Manipur, Keibu-Keioiba, is the story of a shaman turning into a half-tiger, half-human creature as a result of his botched practice of the black arts, and the transformed creature is depicted as both bloodthirsty and an outcast.

He kidnaps a beautiful damsel called Thabaton, whom he makes his wife and keeps in captivity.

The story ends with Keibu-Keioiba being fooled by Thabaton and killed by her brothers.

The tiger, – lawless, savage and menacing beast had to be exterminated at any cost.

Still there is worship of Wangbaren (Wangbren), that has been associated with the warding off sickness and disaster. Wangbaren is black complexion, wears black garment and a black tiger is his mount.

Tiger deities of the Naga

Naga myth: On the creation of the tiger

A legend from Nagaland narrates the story of the first spirit, the first tiger and the first man, all of whom came out of the pangolin’s den, born of the same mother. The man stayed at home, the tiger went to the forest.

One day the man went into the forest where he met the tiger, and the two began to fight. The man tricked the tiger into crossing a river and then killed the tiger with a poisoned dart.

The tiger’s body floated down the river till it lay among the reeds. The god Dingu-Aneni saw that the bones had come from a human womb and and sat on them for ten years, as a result of which hundreds of tigers were born and went to live in the hills and plains.

A popular belief among the Naga tribe is that in spirit, man and tiger are brothers.

The Mao Nagas believed that Ora (spirit), Okhe (tiger) and Omei (man) were brothers born out of the miraculous union of the clouds in the sky and the first woman, called Dziiliamosiiro.

When their mother was dying, the tiger was sent to live in the jungle as he could smell their mother’s dying flesh. The belief that the tiger is a man’s brother meant that the Naga tribe’s people would rarely kill a tiger.

It was believed that, dejected in defeat, the tiger went into the dense jungle and settled there, while the spirit vanished in the far south.

Another version of the story is that the tiger was tricked into living in the jungle by man, which meant that man could not see the cosmic spirit anymore.

The rituals performed to worship the tiger today are in the hope that the three brothers can unite once more.

This holy union of man, nature and the spiritual world forms an underlying theme through many of the beliefs surrounding tigers. While the cosmic spirit refuses to be seen by man, it is up to us to ensure that man doesn’t lose his other brother too.

Naga folklore invokes the tiger as a guardian of the region, who ensured human fertility.

Oaths were taken over a tiger’s tooth or skull and tiger spirits were invoked to cure illnesses.

Some other Naga tribes even killed tigers on ceremonial occasions but strict taboos governed the cutting, skinning and eating of tiger’s flesh.

The head was put in water or the mouth propped open to allow the spirit to escape and prevent the tiger god from avenging his wrath on his killer.

The Lhota Nagas put leaves in the tiger’s mouth for the same purpose while the Lephori kept tiger heads in trees and used them for taking oaths.

The eclipse is explained as the attempt by the tiger to eat the moon or sun, which could be prevented by the loud beating of drums.

Yaiphaba Ningthoujam has collected two myths showing, that the tiger is untrustworthy and bloodthirsty, and hence constitute a constant threat to humankind:

Tangkhul Nagas believed that their ancestors had emerged from a cave at a place on the hill known as Murringphy, which is about a four days journey away in the north-west of the valley of Manipur. In the beginning, no one could leave the cave because it was guarded by a tiger that devoured anyone who attempted to escape.

Only after it was duped and driven away could the Tangkhul Nagas’ ancestors leave the cave. The Anal, Purum and Kom tribes also believed in the ‘cave origin myth’ in which a man-eating tiger stood in the way of their ancestors reaching their ‘promised land’.

The ancestors of those tribes had to kill the tiger to get out of the cave and start their settlement. Thus, the tiger was malevolent and vicious creature that stood in the way of the very foundation of their existence itself.

The Mao people of the Wainganga valley are a Tibeto-Burman major ethnic group of the Nagas inhabiting of Nagaland in Northeast India.

Frazer James G. in 1919, writes about the Bagh Deo worship of the Mao people [sic].

The principle of blood revange of the Kukis

Frazer James G. in 1919, explains:

The Kookies or Kukis of Chittagong, in North- Eastern India, savage people[sic], are of a most vindictive disposition blood must always be shed for blood; if a tiger even kills any of them, near a village, the whole tribe is up in arms, and when, if he is killed, the goes in pursuit of the animal; when, if he is killed, the family of the deceased gives a feast of his flesh, in revenge of his having killed their relation.

And should the tribe fail to destroy the tiger, in this first general pursuit of him, the family of the deceased must still continue the chace; for until they have killed either this, or some other ‘tiger, and have given a feast of his flesh, they are in disgrace in the village, and not associated with by the rest of of the inhabitants.

In like manner, if a tiger destroys one of a hunting party, or of a party of warriors on an hostile

excursion, neither the one nor the other (whatever their success may have been) can return to the village, without being disgraced, unless they kill the tiger. [sic]

North Bengal tiger worship

North Bengal is the place of co-existence among various groups of people. Peer is the sufi saint, that
brings a friendly bondage between the Hindus and Muslims.

In northern Bengal the tiger god was worshiped by both Hindus and Muslims.

Scroll paintings depict a Muslim holy man riding a tiger, carrying a string of prayer beads and a staff. Pir Gazi or Bare Khan Gazi was such a Sufi preacher, Sufi-led villages were centers of the Mughal period.

In another mythological story, a man and a woman in the jungle were prevented by the presence of the Asur Dano (demon) from procreating.

So the woman took a branch of an ebony tree, cut it into pieces and threw them at the Asur. They turned into bears, tigers and hyenas which kept the Asur away. Then they copulated and there were seed and fruit (Thapar 1995).

The myths of the tiger deity are common to other communities of the North-East. The Bodos believe that the tiger was the ancestor of one of their clans. In the Bodo belief system, the tiger is known as Musa while his descendants are known as Musahari or Baglari. The tiger also holds an important position in the Khasi myths. It is regarded as one of the incarnations of U Basa.

Sonarai festival

Sonarai, also written as Sonaraya or Shonarai, is the worship of the tigers in north Bengal, Sona’ refers to the golden hue of tiger’s coat. It is mainly performed by cowherders in eastern India on Pausha Sankranti day (December – January). A couple of days before the Sonarai ritual, young cowherders go from door to door, begging for contributions. They also carry drums and sing rural folk songs.

They participants also carry a bamboo or some reeds knotted together, that serve as a totem. The totem is painted with various colours and decorated with flowers, leaves, and jute fibres, hung vertically. The lead boy (sometimes a man) carries them from house to house.

The householders contribute rice, lentils or money, the alms are used to cook food, that will be offered to the tiger god and for a community feast.

A particular spot is chosen for the worship. The cowherders set up sticks adorned with garlands representing the tiger god or make clay or sholapith idols of Sona Ray, mounted on a tiger and occasionally to Rupa Ray (Sona Ray’s brother), mounted on a goat.

The festival was observed and the tiger god was worshipped in Cooch Behar and Rangpur Districts of undivided Bengal and in Assam’s Goalpara area.

Dāngdhori Māo or Sona Ray – the goddess of tiger of the Koch-Rajbanshis

The Koch-Rajbanshis are a major ethnic community living in Assam and North Bengal, some parts of Bihar, Nepal, and Bangladesh. According to their belief system, the spirit-world forms a part of the totality of being, where man, animals, plants, spirits, and deities remain inseparable parts of the whole.

The god, Sona Ray, is the tiger deity, who protects the faithful from the tiger.

In the Cooch Behar district of North Bengal Dāngdhori Māo or Sona Ray, is worshipped. Once North Bengal was covered with deep forest and various wild beasts were there, who prey on cattle.

The Rajbansis of Cooch Behar would worship this deity for safety of their domestic animals. After the birth of a calf, they worship deity Dāngdhori Māo with bitten rice (chura), milk and ripe bananas. There is a similarity between Dāngdhori Māo and Devi Durgā.

Wildlife Protection through Beliefs and Totems restrict the culling of certain animals and plants. In the North, the Adi tribes of Arunachal Pradesh see tigers, sparrows, and pangolins as well-wishers of humankind so they are not hunted.

One of the septs or sub-tribes of the Eacharis of Assam show traces of their belief in animal descent by going into mourning, fasting, and performing certain funeral rites when a tiger dies.

Garo weretiger-lore

Tigers have historically been a threat to Garo rural settlements. However, only when a tiger had carried off or mauled a villager or a farm animal, was it hunted down by the Garos. A bamboo cage with bait in the form of the kid of a goat or a dog, was used. Once trapped, the animal was killed with a spear or gun. The meat of the slain tiger would only be eaten by males, including, of course, the hunting party.

The Garo tribals, who live in the western highlands of Meghalaya, the southern foothills of Assam and northern Bangladesh, are noted for their diverse beliefs on tigers or matcha. The Garo tiger lore include:

• matchadus: a legendary ‘race’ of shape-shifting tigermen who were the merciless enemies of the Garo tribe,
• matchapilgipas: Garo people whose vital essence (janggi, ‘life, soul’) while dreaming or while in a hypnotic trance moves out of their body and into a real jungle tiger, or into a snake, elephant and even into another human being.
• weretigers: who draw their shape-shifting power from their mastery of magical arts.
• Tiger-shamans’ are powerful shamans who take the tiger as their spirit-guide and who can supposedly perform miraculous cures with its help.
• Durokma, the tigermother

From an episode contained in the Khatta Agana, the cycle of oral epics and heroic ballads of the Garos, one learns that matchadus retain their human form during the day and turn into tigers at nightfall, and then, alone or in a group, follow the trail of cows, goats and humans in order to devour them.

Sometimes Garo heroes succeed in deceiving and killing the tigermen or this ‘race’ of cannibals, half-men and half-tigers, living in their own villages located deep in the forest.

Different sections of the Garo tribe retain in their cultural traditions a complex of supernatural beliefs centering around the idea that all or most of the man-eating tigers prowling around their villages are actually weretigers or matchapilgipas – namely, human beings turned into tigers. (Francesco Brighenti. Feline Metamorphoses of the Living and the Dead among the Kondhs of Odisha. 2004.)

Among the Garos the killing of a man-eating tiger is thought to require a major reparative sacrifice – an ox and two jars of liquor – for the human janggi that might have temporarily occupied the body of the animal at the time of its death.

The only way to sever the link with the tiger is through rites of exorcism arranged by the matchapilgipa’s relatives with the goal to permanently constrain the janggi of the shape-shifter within its original human body.

Durokma – Tiger mother

Garo oral traditions refer to an immortal female being, called Durokma, Dorokma or Dorogma, a ‘matriarchal’ ruler of tigermen (matchadus), as well as the queen of tigers and tigresses – hence her
appellation Matchama, ‘Tiger Mother’. [Bhattacharyya (1995) labels Durokma as a “goddess of monkeys”, most likely because durok is the Garo term for the Bengal loris (Nycticebus bengalensis)].

In epic lore of the Garos she is described as a female tyrant who exercises absolute power of life and death over matchadu warriors. The bravest, most heroic, and most famous matchadu generals were her progeny.

One of Durokma’s legendary abodes is situated on Koasi (or Khoasi) Hill in the northeastern portion of the Garo Hills.

Tigermen used to have annual meetings and sacrifices were held on this hills. The ancient inhabitants of the surrounding country, known as Matchadu Asong (‘the Land of Tigermen’), are said to have worshipped this immortal female being as their tiger-goddess under the name of Koasi Durokma (‘Durokma residing on Koasi Hill’).

The power, attributed to certain persons, to temporarily project their spiritual essence into the body of a a tiger or leopard during sleep or trance is prevalent among the Garos, Khasi and Naga groups in the Assamese region and, further south, some Kondh groups in the state of Orissa.

Bhoi (Khasi) weretiger-lore

The tigerman tradition is most visible among the Bhoi, a community of the Khasis that inhabit the northern section of Meghalaya. Although the Bhoi are predominantly Christians, Khasi religious
beliefs are strong among them. The way of life is primarily agrarian, with paddy cultivation as the mainstay of local economy.

Cat People of Ri Bhoi

Human tigers among the Bhoi are known as khla phuli, and the transformation of a human into a tiger is called ia khla. The etymology of these words is somewhat obscure: although khla literally means “tiger,” or to “become” and khla – “tiger.”

There are two kinds of tiger transformations among the Bhoi:

• The male tigerman – sansaram, literally means “five-clawed.” Contrary to the real tiger which has five claws in its front paws and four in his hind paws – the human tiger has five claws both in his front and the hind paws.
• The khruk that is smaller and usually female.

The tiger- men and women are associated with special sacred places in the forests of Ri Bhoi. One such place is the dwelling of the guardian deity of tiger people of the Makri clan.

The name of this deity is Pdahkyndeng and his dwelling place is a cave called Krem Lymbit which is also home to a large number of bats.

Lyngdoh Margaret, in: Tiger Transformation among the Khasis of Northeastern India Belief Worlds and Shifting Realities. 2016, tells us:

Ha Makri told me that when cattle and livestock are lost, local people attribute this to the tiger deity that feeds on the livestock. Similarly, if a person is lost in this cave then, as my informant explains, the soul-essence or rngiew of that person is chosen by the tiger deity to be his cattle herder.

Finally, it is believed that the bats in this cave comprise the cattle of the tiger deity.

The ability to turn into a tiger is an attribute of the rngiew of a person and it is conferred on the individual by his/her ancestors (syrngi).

A weretiger enters into the realm of ancestral spirits to receive knowledge from them which is then disseminated to the village or clan members.

Tigerwomen and tigermen usually are also the shamans of the clan they belong to. On their death, they become responsible for the wellbeing of the community, participating actively in the further development of the clan. The “Knia Lyngdoh”ritual, which takes place every year is performed for this purpose.

The Lyngdoh, ritual performer, often a tigerman (in the Bhoi context) and also the current maternal uncle of the family offers up betel nuts and leaves to the spirits of as many deceased maternal uncles as he is able to recall. The names of the deceased shamans are spoken out. Then, one name is divined and the spirit of this ancestor becomes the guardian spirit of the clan for one year.

Khasi tiger-men are not malevolent and only special persons are chosen divinely by the ancestors or the tiger deities. In certain cases, the ability is hereditary. The female tigerwoman generally wanders alone.
The woman chosen to become a tigerwoman is special, in the sense that the ability is bestowed upon
her by ancestral spirits of the clan that she belongs to. She is also the only one who can prepare the rice beer to be used in various ritual contexts.

This is one of the most significant functions of the female weretiger, who is also the custodian of the clan essence (longkur), Margaret Lyngdoh explains, in: Tiger Transformation among the Khasis of Northeastern India. Belief Worlds and Shifting Realities. 2016.

How to trasform into a khruk

In an interview held with Swell Lyngdoh at Korstep Village in Ri Bhoi, on 28 December 2012, Margaret Lyngdoh, was narrated the following story of how she first became a tiger woman.

Swell inherited her abilities from her mother’s elder sister.

She told me that the first time she felt the change it was like a dream. She dreamed that she was creeping along the gardens of people in the village and eating their cucumbers. One night, she became aware that she went to the pigsty belonging to a local family and she clawed a pig by its neck.

She dragged the pig by its neck into the forest and left it there underneath a bamboo grove.
Next morning, there was a hue and cry in the village about the disappearance of the pig. It was then that Swell Lyngdoh was able to tell the villagers where to look for the missing pig that she had killed in her tiger state.

While her body slept at home, her tiger went forth.

Her tiger form is coloured black, with white stripes.

Avner Pariat explains: many areas in Meghalaya’s northern Ri Bhoi and Jaintia Hills districts have stories about people who acquire the ability to “inhabit” the body of tigers and leopards. Kong Kel Makr talks about her leopard life in the Interview:

The cat people most never shape-shift into these felines but are reportedly able to link their souls or spirits with the animal. They have a life-long link with the cats and should the animal die or being killed, they also suffer the same fate.    

Tiger cults of South India

In 1890, Georgiana Kingscote and Pandit Natesa Sastri recorded a tale from southern India that makes
the origin of an old Tamil proverb:

Sfummd imhhlraija, suruvattai k(i//(if/mn.a,

Be quiet, or I shall show you my original shape.

and features a tiger that turns into a man, not vice versa.

In Hindu mythology the palmyra —Borassus flabellifer, a tall fanpalm – is the living descendant of the original kulpa briksha or Kalpavriksha कल्पवृक्ष (also seen as a Banyan tree),: the wish-giving tree, or tree of eternal life, and one of fourteen remarkable things revealed when the gods and demons stirred up the ocean.

The original kulpa briksha now stands in the first heaven, but the names of Rama and his wife, Sita – incarnations of the benevolent deities Vishnu, preserver of the cosmos, and his wife, Lakshmi – are written on the trunks of all its descendants on Earth. Anyone who touches one is therefore safe from any animal.

Palmyra has also long been associated with the healing power of tigers.

But the tale of the Brahman girl who married a tiger is notable above all for its portrayal of the tiger as a cunning yet easily deceived creature that lives in limbo between the forest world, where it really belongs, and the human world, to which it is drawn but to which it can never properly belong: a world from which, many would say, it originally came, but to which it can never return.

Just as no human can ever really be a tiger, then, so no tiger can ever truly be human. (Patrick Newman. Tracking the Weretiger. Supernatural Man-Eaters of India, China and Southeast Asia. 2012.)

Is it, really?

Kondh weretiger-lore

Traditionally the Khond religious beliefs were syncretic combining totemism, animism, ancestor worship, shamanism and nature worship.

Dr. Ramdayal Munda Tribal Welfare Research Institute

Francesco Brighenti tells us: The practice of theriomorphism has survived to this day, along with a shamanic-type religiosity among the Kond minorities still populating the Kandhmal district.

The Kondhs of Ganjam also believe that they can transform themselves into tigers or snakes, half the soul leaving the body and becoming changed into one of these animals, either to kill an enemy, or to satisfy hunger by feeding on cattle.

During this period they are said to feel dull and listless, and, if a tiger is killed in the forest, they will die at the same time. Mr Fawcett informs me (Thurston Edgar, in: Omens and Superstitions of Southern India. 1912.) that the Kondhs believe that the soul wanders during sleep.

On one occasion, a dispute arose owing to a man discovering that another Kondh, whose spirit used to wander about in the guise of a tiger, ate up his soul, and he fell ill.

Purification ritual as part of death ceremonies of the Kondhs

In connection with the death ceremonies of the Kondhs, that, if a man has been killed by a tiger, purification is made by the sacrifice of a pig, the head of which is cut off with a tangi (axe) by a Pāno, and passed between the legs of the men in the village, who stand in a line astraddle.

It is a bad omen to him, if the head touches any man’s legs. According to another account, the head of the decapitated pig is placed in a stream, and, as it floats down, it has to pass between the legs of the villagers. If it touches the legs of any of them, it forebodes that he will be killed by a tiger.

The tiger spirt

According to the Dongria Kondh and several Kondh subgroups in Kandhamal district, anyone killed by a tiger becomes a tiger spirit. In the Kui language, this spirit is called bagolenju if the deceased was a man, or bagoleri if a woman.

After taking possession of the body of the tiger that killed its formerly human form, the bagolenju begins to roam the hills surrounding the village, making its dwelling near the place marked by the erection of special stones where its death occurred, or deep in the forest, in an inaccessible gorge, or in the ravine of a stream.

The bagolenju can occasionally be heard emitting terrible cries. In this condition, it especially attempts to kill its human relatives.

The Kondh belief in weretigers implies neither possession of the human body by a tiger-deity or tiger- spirit nor any bodily metamorphosis of a human being into a tiger (it does not imply any physical shape-shifting).

On the contrary, the transformation is reportedly achieved through the nocturnal transmigration of a man or woman’s soul (or, better, of a type of sub-soul sometimes termed as “life- force” by anthropologists) into the body of a tiger whose will and actions thereby come to be controlled by a person in deep sleep.

The Kuttia and Dongria highlanders foremost, believe that the soul of certain specially endowed individuals have the faculty of commanding a living tiger in dreamtime, and they regard such individuals as weretigers.

Darṇi Pēnu – the earth goddess

Beggiora Stefano writes, in: Tiger, Tiger-Spirits and Were-tigers in Tribal Orissa. 2013:

Kondh lore about the phenomenon of tiger-transformation is rooted in the mythology of the earth goddess, Darṇi Pēnu, who is worshipped with reverence and awe by all sections of the Kondh tribe.

In myths accounting for the origin of this phenomenon, which were first recorded by British army officers in the mid-nineteenth century, Darṇi Pēnu is regarded as the creatrix and first practitioner of this supernatural art, whose secrets were transmitted by her to certain Kondhs after the latter’s prayers.

Although most of the Kondhs have currently forgotten such myths, many of them still believe that the power of tiger- transformation has a divine origin.

Am(b)ali-Bāeli – mythical Great Ancestress of the Kondh

In Samuel C. Macpherson’s account of the religion of the Kondhs, published in 1852, this British army officer and ethnographer writes that “Umbally Bylee” – that is, Am(b)ali-Bāeli (The archaic Kui name Amali-Bāeli or Ambali-Bāeli literally means Father‘s elder sister-Ego‘s elder sister‘), mythical Great Ancestress of the Kondhs and, at one time, a human manifestation of the earth goddess – originally chose to manifest herself to man in her tiger form.

After she had assumed such form, she killed a large quantity of game animals (whose carcasses were eaten by the Kondhs with great delight) as well as enemies of the Kondhs; finally, she taught the Kondhs both the art of “Mleepa ”, how to make themselves into tigers or leopards as she herself had first done, and the art of public war, i.e., how to kill enemies in battle.

Pālaṭa bāgha, Mleepa or Kradi Mliva – the act of converting oneself into a tiger

Francesco Brighenti, in: Kradi Mliva knows; the colloquial Oriya term pālaṭa bāgha (literally ‘the act of converting oneself into a tiger’, an expression also applied, to any human being who is believed to be able to convert him/herself into a tiger).

This act is called kṛāḍi mlīva or mlīpa (‘transformation/metamorphosis into a tiger/leopard’) in the Kui dialects spoken by the northern Kondhs, and as kai kṛani in the Kuvi dialect spoken by the Desia Kondh tribe

Nineteenth-century British army officer John Campbell, has done his best to depict the power of tiger-transformation, referred to in Kondh mythology and traditional lore, as a pure superstition whose cultural background would have been provided by beliefs in witchcraft and evil magic. Campbell labels the phenomenon as – Pulta Bag or – Phulto Bag, an Anglicized spelling of the colloquial Oriya term pālaṭa bāgha.

Meriā

The links between tiger-transformation beliefs and the human-sacrifice tradition appear to have been very close among the Kondhs. In former times, human sacrifice to the earth goddess represented the principal form of ritual response to supposed weretiger-attacks in the Kondh inhabited area.

Tiger attacks were diagnosed by priests as signs of the goddess‘ profound dissatisfaction with a group – whether household, clan or village – which had failed to keep her well supplied with blood sacrifices. The immediate celebration of a human sacrifice (or, after its suppression, of a buffalo sacrifice) was deemed necessary to restore the relationship and thus put a stop to serial (were-)tiger attacks.

Also, as is told in this mythic narrative, the earth goddess had asked the tribe to sacrifice human beings to her on a regular basis in return for her teachings, this story is nowadays recited by Kondh village priests at the celebration of the buffalo sacrifice that, since Macpherson’s time, has replaced the older human sacrifice known in the Oriya language as Meriā.

Macpherson also writes, that always, according to the Kondhs, a man-eating tiger can be only:

• the earth goddess herself, embodying the wild and chaotic powers of nature incarnated into a tiger that starts killing the people when the goddess gets enraged with them for lack of sacrifices (thus, literally “devouring” her victim); or
• a “Mleepa tiger” – an expression by which he translates from Kui language mlīva k ṛāḍi (‘a transformed tiger’) into kṛāḍi mlīva (‘to be transformed into tiger form’).

C.C. Morris not only tells us that a Kondh weretiger was then believed to have the power of projecting his or her soul into the body of a tiger while asleep, a fact that was later on emphasized by the famous ethnologist Edgar Thurston.

Kṛāḍi mlīvarenjus and kṛāḍi mlīvareṛis (respectively, male and female mlīva practitioners) were perceived by the nineteenth-century Kondhs as evil-intentioned persons who underwent the transformation into a tiger mainly with the intent to cause economic loss (e.g. by raiding one’s cattle at night), bodily harm, or even death to their enemies.

For example, in Kandhamal district, some Malia Kondh groups (‘Hill Kondhs,’ the majority section of the Kui-speaking Kondhs) offer sacrifices of chickens and pigs to a household spirit responsible for guarding the back of their homes, protecting the village from both evil forest spirits and enemies transformed into tigers who might leap out of the jungle to attack the village’s men and animals.

Still in our days, the belief in feline therianthropy is responsible for many social tensions among the Kondhs, who may accuse a neighbor or a relative of, in the form of a tiger, killing their cattle at night.

The Kondhs of Orissa view tigermen as negative, malevolent entities capable of harming people and performing malicious actions. According to beliefs passed down among these tribes, four different classes of conscious beings are capable of triggering the homicidal instinct in a tiger by infusing it with their psychic energy. These are:

• certain deities (i.e., animistic divine spirits);
• spirits of people who died as a result of a tiger attack;
• enemies capable of transferring their psychic energy into the body of a tiger at will;
• individuals predestined by certain deities/spirits to develop the power to transfer their psychic energy into the body of a tiger during sleep.

Some Kondh communities traditionally subject all prepubescent girls to a specific facial tattoo. Among the westernmost Desia Kondhs, this tattoo always includes three straight lines drawn on each cheek, which are believed to graphically represent the whiskers of a tiger.

According to an ancient superstition, Desia women who are not tattooed in this way are believed to easily develop the ability to transform into tigers.

This belief is often wielded as a threat by the parents of young girls reluctant to have their faces tattooed, to whom it is frequently suggested that the tattoo is the only means to avoid becoming tiger-women. Desia girls are taken to a secret location in the jungle for the tattooing ceremony.

Through this rite, they will be admitted into the circle of marriage candidates. After the procedure, the initiated girls remain isolated for seven days in the girls’ dormitory to care for their painful wounds; they ultimately reappear in public with their tattoos, which bear the feline mark of Darṇi Pēnu.

In earlier times, due to this superstition, untattooed girls found it quite difficult to find anyone willing to marry them, so A. Götzelmann, in: Feline Metamorphoses of the Living and the Dead among the Kondhs of Odisha, Francesco Brighenti, 2004. Additionally, the girl is considered a bearer of bad luck and therefore cannot participate in the religious festivities of the community.

Tiger Tales In Khasi Clans

Willie Gordon Suting writes:

All oral traditions have unique origin stories. The Khasi Hills is rich in various myths and legends much of which remain undocumented till today. Shillong-based writer Avner Pariat in his exhibition ‘Cults of the Khla (tiger)’ undertook a pioneering initiative to find the cogency in the decades-old folklore.

Pariat travelled to different hamlets to interview clan elders on how Khasis appropriated “animal identity” or the khla (tiger) into their cultural forms.

The mythical tale of the Khonglah clan has a touch of compassion. Rynjang who was the last surviving member of the clan, escaped from the clutches of Kyrdep Tarang clan. It was a tiger, whom she had helped, that saved her life. Hiding inside the trunk of the dymbui tree, Rynjang was able to run away when the coast was clear.

The Khonglahs hence feel it is taboo and cannibalism to eat tiger meat, and are prohibited from using the wood of the dymbui tree.

The Laitmiet clan of Kunongrim village traces their origin from an ancestress who was imprisoned on a ledge located on the side of a cliff. The woman’s cries for help in the darkness of the night were answered with a rope lowered down to her. Safely out, she discovered the rope was the tail of a tiger. The big cat saved her life.

The ancestress sworn that her progeny would never eat tiger meat and took the name “Laitmiet” meaning “freed at night”, a reminder to her clan of the incident.

The Makdoh clan whenever in a situation of crisis can invoke ban nam, and a tiger spirit would come to their rescue. This tiger-god named Lathari would follow them everywhere from the fields to the marketplace, keeping an eye on them while hiding on the background. When any clan member died, Lathari would be seen around the pyre mourning.

The Chad Khla/Rongkhli festival held at Nongtalang and Bataw villages in Jaintia Hills in the past usually involved community hunting of a wild tiger. Great care was paid by the elders to ensure certain religious conditions were met before the hunt commenced.

When finally managing to subdue the beast, the hunters would parade joyfully with the carcass around the village borders. The tiger would be cleaned, cooked and eaten at a designated site outside the village.

The tiger meat was believed to have a protective effect on the body of the hunters for about a year.

Vyāghra Devī, the tiger goddes of the Kondhs

Vyāghra Devī (in Sanskrit, ‘Tiger Goddess’), the Hindu Great Goddess to the spirit of the Tiger is only found in southwestern Odisha within the cult dedicated to the ancient tutelary deity of the Bhañja dynasty of Ghumsar.

The origin of this cult is traced in local traditions to the appropriation of a Kondh tiger-goddess (Darṇi Pēnu herself ?) by the first rājā of Ghumsar after he had killed two Kondh tribal chiefs who worshipped her as the protective deity of their tribe.

The two sanctuaries of Vyāghra Devī (Byaghra Devi or Bagh Devi Temple, Kulada, Ganjam, Orissa) are called lower and upper Baghdevi temple situated at the top of the hill after a climb of around 280 stairs at the summit of a rocky hill near present-day Bhanjanagar.

Above the sanctuary, which was once located outdoors, looms a massive boulder whose profile resembles that of a tiger’s head. This seems to suggest the probable totemic origin of this deity, revered from time immemorial by the Kondh tribespeople residing in the Bhanjanagar area, particularly for the power attributed to her to protect her devotees from attacks by tigers and other ferocious beasts.

The cult of Vyāghra Devī, despite having been Sanskritized for many centuries, is still officiated by tribal Kondh priests. On special ritual occasions, Kondhs are accustomed to offer their own blood to the goddess according to a sacrificial usage typical of Śāktism. It seems almost certain that, until the mid-19th century, the Kuladha sanctuary was the site of human sacrifices performed in honor of this feline epiphany of the Hindu Great Goddess.

The Kondhs think that only feline specimens controlled by an external spiritual agent may attack humans for food, while ordinary specimens refrain from such behavior.

This likely reflects a piece of experience: the common notion that only a very limited number of tigers or leopards, typically old or injured, venture to the edges of villages to prey on humans.

The tigers of Orissa are regarded as Bagheshwar and Banjara by the Santhals and the Kisans of the state. The Santals and Vindhyan Kisans worship him as Banraj, forest king, and will not kill him, and believe that he spares them in return for their devotion. Even those who do not actually worship swear by his name or on his skin, as is the case among the Hos and Juangs.

Tiger deity of the Mishmi

Ambika Aiyadurai, knows, in her, ‘Tigers are Our Brothers’ Understanding Human-Nature Relations in the Mishmi Hills, Northeast India. Conservation & Society, Vol. 14, No. 4. 2016, the mythological story of Mishmi and tigers as brothers. Such narratives of tigers as siblings are popular in other parts of Arunachal Pradesh also.

On how the big cats came to be

According to the Mishmi mythology, Mishmi and tigers were born to the same mother and were siblings (tiger, the elder brother and human, the younger brother). The younger brother hunted a deer and left the deer with the elder brother to collect firewood.

On his return, he was terrified to see his brother eating the meat raw. He told his mother, ‘my younger brother is a tiger. If he can eat raw meat, then one day he will eat me too’. The mother came up with a plan: she would hold a competition between the two brothers.

The one who crossed the river and was first to reach the bank would kill the other. The tiger decided to swim across the river, whereas the Mishmi took the bridge. The tiger was the first to reach the bank, but as the tiger emerged from the water, the mother threw an antnest on his body to prevent him from winning.

The tiger dived back into the water and scratched his body against a rock. The Mishmi, meanwhile, reached and climbed up the bank and shot the tiger with an arrow. Thus, the tiger died and its body floated in the river and was swept away to a faraway place.

Several years later, a bird saw the bones of the tiger scattered on the riverside. The bones were white and shone bright in the sunlight. Thinking these were eggs, the bird sat upon them. From these bones came the tiger, and from the smaller bones came the leopard, the leopard cat, the clouded leopard and the civet cat.

This is a story of a tiger being born again and explains, why the Mishmi refrain from killing tigers. For Mishmis’, the tiger (Aamra) is their elder brother (Apiya).

It is the most revered and feared animal, and killing tigers is prohibited. In fact, it is viewed as ‘homicide’.

Their relation with animals ranges from protecting some animals (for example, tigers and hoolock gibbon), utilising animals for meat (takin, serow, barking deer), trading animal parts (pods of musk deer and gall bladders of bears), and if required killing carnivores that attack their cattle (wild dogs, tigers) or animals that raid their crops (bears, ungulates, wild pigs).

These multifaceted relations create friction with the state view of protected animals as ‘scheduled animals’, or species catalogued as ‘endangered’, ‘critically endangered’, ‘vulnerable’ or ‘least concern’ (IUCN 2014).

State institutions view animals through the lens of population numbers and levels of threat they face. Tigers and their conservation evoke emotions both at the local level (as kin), for the state (as a national symbol), and for science (as a species under threat of becoming extinct).

Tiger Dance of South India

Ritual dancing processions – the pulivēṣam and hulivēṣa (‘tiger masquerade/disguise’), or the pulikaḷi (‘tiger play’) – are performed in South India by men masked or disguised as tigers, leopards, or black panthers during both Hindu and Muslim religious festivals.

This Tiger Dance is performed during Dussehra in honor of goddess Durga दुर्गा. It is called puliyattam in Tamil, puli vesham in Andhra Pradesh, puli kali in Kerala, bagh nritya in Orissa and huli kunita/huli vesha in Karnataka.

The Southern Western Ghats: The tiger in culture and folklore

The Western Ghats play a major role not only when it comes to the conservation of biodiversity but it is equally responsible for the monsoon, agricultural patterns and the lifestyles of comunities of the region.

The Ghats is one of the world’s “Hottest biodiversity hotspots” and was declared an ecological hotspot in 1988, even though they cover only 5% of India’s land. The Government of India took a conscious effort to preserve these forests, by establishing two biosphere reserves, thirteen national parks, several wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests.
They serve as important corridors to wildlife as they form an integral part of the Elephant and Project Tiger reserves.

Six tribal communities of Mannans, Palliyans, Malayarayans, Mala Pandarams, Uralis, and Ulladans thrived in the Periyar forests and made a living by collecting firewood, honey, raisin and hunting small animals. Now they live at the fringes of Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR), in the Cardamom Hills and Pandalam Hills of the Southern Western Ghats.

Periyar in Thottakkattukara, Ernakulam, has a history of successful involvement of communities in protected area management.

The conversion of poachers to protectors is a well lauded achievement.

The Sabarimala temple is a renowned pilgrimage destination situated within the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, India.

It is a sacred hill shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, attracting millions of devotees annually, especially during the annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season.

Ayyappa is usually depicted as a youthful man riding or near a Bengal tiger and holding a bow and arrow.

In recent years a winter pilgrimage has been instituted to the Ayyappan shrine, Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple (between December 15 and January 15, depending on the lunar calendar).

The management of the Pilgrims route is another success in the community participation and community control on damages due to visitation.

Today the tribal comunities around the tiger habitat, are not forest dwellers any more, but help protect nature and work in tourism.

Velans and Mannans weretiger-lore

Velans and Mannans tales about tiger-transformation describe the metamorphosis from man to tiger in terms of physical shape-shifting and as a supernatural ability which can only be manifested by an act of profane – magic.

Shapeshifting prescriptions of the Velans and Mannas

The common means of inducing physical transformation is swallowing some magic substance, like in India, an antidote is often needed to reverse the transformation; one you may have to entrust to an accomplice.

Anantha Krishna Iyer recorded two shapeshifting prescriptions issued by Velans and Mannans (a largely dhobi caste – of Cochin, now Kochi, in Kerala). One is:

“Take the head of a dog and burn it, and plant on it vellakutti plant [I have been unable to identify this]. Burn camphor and frankincense, and adore it. Then pluck the root. Mix it with the milk of a dog and the bones of a cat. A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.”

The other is:

“Before a stick of the Malankara plant [the emetic nut tree (Catunaregam spinosa)], worship with a lighted wick and incense. Then chant the Sakti [Shakti, or empowering] mantram 101 times, and mutter the mantram to give life at the bottom.

Watch carefully which way the stick inclines. Proceed to the south of the stick, and pluck the whiskers of a live tiger, and make with them a ball of the veerali silk [as used to cover Keralan warriors killed fighting heroically], string it with silk, and enclose it within the ear.

Stand on the palms of the hand to attain the disguise of a tiger, and, with the stick in hand, think of a cat, white bull, or other animal. Then you will, in the eyes of others, appear as such.”

Plucking the whiskers of a live tiger sounds about as easy as milking a tigress.

Sacred groves

Forests invigorate me.

I breathe, feel, walk, and listen. All my senses pulsate and I remain enthralled by the magic that surrounds me…and I am at peace.

Sacred groves are natural areas that have been preserved for religious or cultural reasons. These groves are often considered to be sacred or holy and are informally protected and managed by local communities. They represent traditional ecological knowledge that balances use and protection of natural resources.

These groves have been preserved for centuries and are important for the biodiversity they support as they are home to a wide range of plant and animal species, – from butterfies, snakes to tigers – many of which are rare or endangered.

They are also important for the livelihoods of local communities, who depend on them for water, food, medicine, and other resources. They are also used as ‘burial’ grounds and hence ancestral spirits are worshipped in these sacred groves.

Religious ceremonies are performend:

Sacred groves used to exist in large pieces of forest – all across India – filled with wildlife and rare plants, but today, they are tiny pieces of forested land, surrounded by agricultural fields and villages.

The Forest Department could assign heritage status to all the sacred groves of the Western Ghats under section 37(1) of the Biological Diversity Act 2002. Such a move, could ensure the conservation of these ecologically fragile regions. Neha Jain

Sacred groves are called Devban in Hindi, Kaavu in Malayalam, Kaan/Devarakaadu in Kannada, Devraai in Marathi, Oran in Marwari, Khlaw kyntang in Khasi and Kovil kaadu in Tamil.

Betaraya Huliraya – the tiger king of Hulidevaruvana (the sacred forest of the tiger)

In Karnataka the tiger is worshiped as Betaraya (beta – hunt, raya – king) in the inland districts and Huliraya (huli – tiger in Kannada), the tiger king, in the sacred groves of the Western Ghat region.

Local guardian deities or forest spirits are often associated with tigers and the protection of forests, hunters, and cattle.

Hulideva is the popular Tiger deity of North Kannada, where the forests are called Hulidevaruvana or ‘forest of the tiger god’.

Worship practices are strongly linked to sacred groves, nature worship, and animal reverence.

If you walk into the dense forests of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka, you may stumble across stone statues of a tiger near streambanks. According to locals, this is the forest god Huli devaru (tiger god), who protects the jungle.

Taking items from the jungle, hunting, or destroying the forest will bring the anger of the tiger god on the offending villages. Locals protect the sacred grove of the god, but also the larger forests that cover nearly 80 percent of the district.

In Mysore villages Mahādeva-Amma, the great goddess, and Huliamma, the tiger-goddess, are found, these deities are worshipped as the guardians of the villages and the averters of epidemics and other misfortunes.

Historically Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore ruled from 1782, he was one of India’s most powerful princes. Tipu (tiger) identified himself with the tiger.

Sankritisation of sacred groves

Over the years, there has been a trend towards “Sankritisation” of the groves, which involves the conversion of animistic deities in the sacred groves to mainstream Hindu gods and goddesses.

This phenomenon paves the way for cement structures such as temples and other buildings to be constructed in the groves, which compromises the conservation value of the groves because fauna and flora (trees for construction) disappear.

The sacred groves are losing their sanctity and some of the groves are becoming temples for commercial purposes, because the owner can earn an income through money offered to the deities.

Tiger deity of the Kollong and Ullatar tribes

Forests have always been central to Indian civilization, representing the feminine force in ‘Prakriti’.

Forests are the primary source of life and fertility, a refuge for the wanderer and a home for the seeker.

Forests have always been viewed as a model for societal and civilizational evolution.

Nanditha Krishna

Kollong and Ullatar tribes of Kerala considered tiger as the son of Goddess Parashakthi. They called the tigers, “Grand-dad”. They rarely killed Tigers.

If the tigers killed community members and cattle, then one of the tribal men would kill the tiger and asked for pardon in a public place.

Then he had to live outside the village for a year and eat the food given by others. This showed the respect they had for the Tigers.

Dodda Nayi of the Soligas tribe

The Soligas have historically inhabited the Biligiri Hills in Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka and in Tamil Nadu for millennia. They are the first tribal community living inside a tiger reserve (Biligirirangana Hills Tiger Reserve, BRT) and got their forest rights recognized by a court in a judgment in 2011.

The key to coexistence is the fact that we worship not only tigers but all animals. As our lifestyle is simple and sustainable, the wildlife habitat is also saved.

Jadeswamy, a Soliga tribal

The tiger is worshiped as a god and is referred to as “Dodda Nayi” (Big Dog), there is a temple dedicated to it. Soliga people follow naturism and animism along with following Hindu practices.

Soliga elders’ perspectives are unique:

“We are part of the animals. We have been living with tigers for centuries. We know tiger and elephant behaviours and they know ours. We know their smell and sound and we do not go to those places. Lots of birds ring alarm bells, so we move to different areas. Monkeys and langurs give call sounds.

These are life skills.

We look after the forest and leave some things for the animals. For example, we do not take all the honey, we leave some there for the animals. We worship tigers, elephants and bison.”

Tiger cults of North India

In the Himalayas the tiger and tigerdeities are also present, from Himachal Pradesh to Uttarkhannd the tiger is protector and present as tigergod, the varna of goddess Durga and the lion headed goddess.

Narasimhi (प्रत्यङ्गिरा Pratyangira, Atharvana Bhadrakali, Simhamukhi) is an incarnation of Mother Goddess that is associated with the Narasimha avatar of Hindu God Vishnu. Devi has a lion-face and rides a tiger.

The earthgoddess, together with the other superior gods, may temporarily assume any earthly form at pleasure as, for instance, that of the tiger as convenient for purposes of wrath, writes Hastings James, 1912.

Bagheshwar: The Tiger God of the Kumaoni

Bagheshwar, also known as Bagh Devta, Baghesur and Bagshyar in the local Kumaoni language, is a revered folk deity of Uttarakhand, worshipped as the tiger god and the guardian of forests, mountains, and wildlife.

He is believed to protect the natural environment and ensures the well-being of the flora and fauna.

His shrines can be found in forested areas, where devotees offer prayers, rituals, and sacrifices to appease the deity and seek his blessings for protection from wild animals, diseases, and calamities. The Bagheshwar Temple in Bageshwar is a famous pilgrimage site dedicated to the deity, where devotees from far and wide gather to seek his divine intervention and blessings.

Located in Bageshwar, Uttarakhannt, Bagnath Temple, this Tiger Lord temple attracts millions of devotees in the holy month of Shravana. Here Lord Shiva manifested in his tiger avatar to bless Sage Vashishtha Markandeya.

The literal meaning of Baghnath is the Master of Tiger. As Lord Shiva is believed to be seated on a tiger skin, he is also known as Baghnath.

A legend of Almora

Pande Badri Datt,in: History of Kumaun writes, that the town of Almora was founded at this place owing to its location in the centre of the Chand Kingdom. But there is hearsay also.

When in 1560 king Kalyan Chand came on a hunting expedition to the hills of Almora he saw a hare who entering inside Almora turned into a tiger. On this the astrologers said that this land was powerful like a lion and so if a town was founded here enemies would be as afraid of its as people as afraid of a lion. So the foundation of the town was laid here.

As soon as the court of the Chand kings was established in Kumaun there came the news of broil from Gangoli. The beautiful and fertilc land lying between Sarayu and Ramganga is famous as Gangavali (Gangoli). Kings of Lunar dynasty had been ruling here since a long time. They were called Mankoti Kings.

They were practically independent and paid a nominal tax to t he king of Doti. The progenitor of this family was king Karm Chand. Upreti was his daughter. There arose a quarrel between the king and the ministers. The Upreti minister got the king killed in the forest while on hunting and circulated the news that the king was killed by a tiger.

The queen smelt a rat in this statement. She entrusted her son to Pant Brahmins and taking the turban of the king committed sati (a Hindu widow burns alive on her deceased husband’s funeral pyre) in Sarayuganga.

It is said that while committing sati she pronounced a curse:

“As it has been said that my husband has been killed by a tiger so in future also people here shall be killed by tigers”.

In Gangoli even now tigers are found in abbundancy.

Man-eating Tigers of lore

As is the case of tigers, leopards too have been incorporated into networks of social relations both historically and in the contemporary sphere. Like tigers, individual leopards involved in conflict (especially predation on humans) have long been considered to be possessed by malevolent spirits. The Rudraprayag leopard (which killed over a hundred people) which was shot by Jim Corbett in 1926 was emphatically regarded an evil spirit that could not be vanquished.

In the chapter, The White Sadhu and the Ultimate Terror, Corbett is concerned with man-eating leopards preying inside houses or windowless pens, and rumoured to be charmed.

A leopard (The Rudraprayag leopard) that “claimed an officially recorded 125 victims” apparently “acquired its taste for human flesh when the global Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 swept through India” and many bodies were not cremated, but abandoned.

Some hunters of such big cats were believed by locals to be endowed with the supernatural powers of a sadhu (Hindu ascetic). Some sadhu was believed to be the double of a wereanimal and lynched, or only spared by the intervention of some official.

So Patrick Newman, in: Tracking the weretiger. Supernatural Man-Eaters of India, China and Southeast Asia, recalls the following story:
Corbett met an old Banjara on the pilgrim road. As he sat smoking Corbett’s cigarettes, he told the sahib the following story.

When his father was a young man and a leopard was terrorizing the neighborhood, the village headmen of the area gathered to discuss what to do.

An old man whose grandson had been killed only the night before stood up and said matter-of-factly that the killer was “one from among their own community who, when he craved for human flesh and blood, assumed the semblance of a leopard,” and that he strongly suspected a fat sadhu who lived in a hut near some temple ruins.

At this there was uproar.
Some said the old man was demented, others that he was surely right. Had the killings not started just after the sadhu arrived? And did not the sadhu always sleep all day in the sun after a killing the night before? [And how else, I might add, did he come to be so fat?].

When the hubbub died the headmen ordered a close watch be kept on the suspect. For two nights he stayed in his hut and no killings were reported, but on the third night the men on watch, including the Banjara’s father, saw him slip out into the dark.

A few hours later they heard a terrible scream come from the direction of a charcoal-burner’s hut up the hill; and at dawn they saw the sadhu hurrying home, his hands and mouth dripping blood. As soon as he was inside, the men rushed over and fastened the door with a chain, piled straw around the hut, and set it ablaze, incinerating its occupant.

“From that day,” the Banjara assured Corbett, “the killing stopped”.

The leopard, unlike its more charismatic cousin, the tiger, is mostly unseen, yet emphatic in its presence in many human-modified landscapes. While historically, problems such as man-eating had a very regional dimension, in contemporary times, this adaptable species not only continues to exploit the farmland niche, but has on occasion successfully crossed over into urban spaces, living off livestock, domestic dogs and occasionally attacking humans.

How local beliefs and practices shape human-wildlife coexistence in rural India

Certain tribes in India and Nepal believe that vengeful tiger spirits can inhabit the forests and punish those who disrespect nature. These tales serve as cautionary reminders of the tiger’s dual nature, both noble and dangerous.

For local comunities the tiger can be the enemy of man, a friend, a helper, an agent, a relative. No matter if you have ever seen him or not, he is the subject of manifold stories. Stories like origin myths, old legends, reports of hearsay, or in the dreams of the last night.

“Tales of this kind should be told, as in India, in the evening shadows under the village peepul tree, suggestively whispering of ghost-land overhead, while the vast background of the outer dark beckons the fancy to a far travel. Under these circumstances the absurdity of animal transformation assumes a dignity and reasonableness impossible to convey in print.”

John Lockwood Kipling, Beast and Man in India, 1891, 358

The image you form of the tiger isn’t just built from stories – it’s a vivid composition of old, recent, and the latest news. You don’t just hear about it – you feel it – like a shiver running down your spine.

Tiger infused cultural landscapes could be adopted as the ethical and foundational philosophy of conservation programes, where indigenous perceptions of landscapes, cultural and spiritual meanings are infused into the model of conservation. These views depart from the ideas of untouched wild landscapes promoted by the scientific conservation dogma.

We must be careful not to romanticize indigenous groups as nature protectors or ‘ecologically noble savages’.

Walter and Hamilton

State and NGO officials need to be sensitized towards local ways of perceiving wildlife and nature. This might trigger a breakthrough in the conservation of tigers in and around reserves.

Relations between humans and animals are often complex, intimate, reciprocal, personal, and crucially ambivalent.

In the absence of consultations with the local people, it is likely that conservation will lead either to coercion and/or marginalization of local communities, making long term conservation difficult.

Among different communities living with the carnivore, we find multiple views of the people standing against the ‘monolithic’ view of the modern state. Here, as elsewhere, the animistic ways of relating to nature cannot be reduced to a singular metaphor.

Local beliefs and practices do shape human-wildlife coexistence in rural India, here we can only give a small glimpse to the tigers’ cultural value, there is still much more to discover.

The forest policy of modern India is excluding the indigenous people from the tiger reserves and sanctuaries. It is depriving them of the right to use the forest, which it has preserved for the fauna and flora for generations.

This policy has neglected the enormous knowledge of the local people about their ecosystem, the local wildlife and the tiger in particular.

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