Matarishvan of the Rigveda and Jaganta Kitung of the Saura Tribe: Two Traditions of the Origin of Fire

Many hymns of the Rigveda contain detailed descriptions of the glory of Agni (the fire deity) and his emergence. According to the ancient beliefs of the Rigveda, in the beginning only the gods were familiar with the secrets of fire. In that era, fire mainly came down from heaven to earth in the form of lightning and would immediately hide itself within the mysterious elements of nature.

According to the Rigveda, a divine messenger or power named "Matarishvan" was the first to bring fire down from heaven and offer it to the great sage Bhrigu. By studying certain mantras of the Rigveda, foreign and modern scholars have inferred that human civilization must have first gained knowledge of fire through natural disasters. In fact, in the Vedic tradition, "Matarishvan" is itself a specific name for Agni. The electrical fire that arises in the sky or the celestial realm is called "Matarishvan." In Sanskrit literature, the other main meaning of Matarishvan is "wind" (Vayu), because without wind, the ignition and spread of fire is not possible.

From a scientific and historical viewpoint, it is believed that in ancient India, humans discovered fire through some meteorite or asteroid that fell from space to earth, the fire produced by its friction, or through forest fires that broke out suddenly due to lightning falling from the sky.

Among the ancient "Saura" (Sabara) tribe of the land of Kalinga (present-day Odisha), an extremely interesting folk legend is prevalent, connected with the invention of fire and Jaganta Kitung.

The people of the Saura tribe consider themselves the children of their principal deity, "Kitung."

According to the mythological tale of the Saura tribe, when the entire world became submerged due to a terrible great deluge, the Mahaprabhu (Supreme Lord) brought an end to the deluge and resolved to create a new creation. The Mahaprabhu brought clay from the body of an earthworm from within the water and thus created the earth. Thereafter, from a closed chest (box) floating in the vast waters of the deluge, he brought out a brother and a sister. The Mahaprabhu accepted them as husband and wife and ordered them to carry forward the creation of humankind. But the brother and sister, out of propriety and social modesty, refused to obey this command of the Mahaprabhu. Angered by this, the Mahaprabhu afflicted both of them with the terrible disease of smallpox, which disfigured and crippled their bodies. After some time had passed, when the appearance of their faces and bodies had changed, they could no longer recognize each other and began living together as husband and wife.

In due course, many children were born from their union. Among these brothers, the youngest was "Jaganta." Jaganta's other six elder brothers were already married, and they had six wives (sisters-in-law to Jaganta).

Jaganta himself was unmarried. He was, among all his brothers, exceptionally handsome, powerful, virtuous, and valiant. Captivated by Jaganta's extraordinary form, beauty, and virtues, his sisters-in-law made an unsuccessful attempt to form a romantic relationship with him and ensnare him. But the righteous Jaganta rejected his sisters-in-law's proposal.

The sisters-in-law began to fear that Jaganta might report their misdeed to their husbands. So they hatched a conspiracy. They disheveled their hair, scratched their own faces, noses, and cheeks with their nails until they bled. Then, weeping and wailing, they went to the hillside (field) where their husbands were engaged in agricultural work. They incited the brothers by making up all kinds of false and fabricated accusations in Jaganta's name.

Believing their wives' false accusations to be true, all six brothers became blind with rage. They immediately returned home, tightly bound Jaganta's hands and feet, and took him away, throwing him beneath a massive banyan tree at the foot of a dense mountain.

Even after many days had passed, no harm came to Jaganta; by the grace of God, he remained alive and safe, beyond hunger and thirst. When the brothers saw him unharmed, they were astonished by his supernatural power. Realizing their mistake, they stopped considering him an ordinary human and began worshipping him as "Kindung Mahaprabhu."

After this, Jaganta went to Mount "Ravanagiri" and, with his tremendous strength, broke apart a huge rock. From the intense friction of this rock, flames of a great fire burst forth, and along with it, wind (Pavan) was also born.

While breaking the rock, a heavy fragment struck Jaganta's face with great force, flattening his face. Gradually, that fire took on a fierce form and spread through the dense forests of the entire Ravanagiri mountain. In the terrible flames of that forest fire, both of Jaganta Kindung's hands and feet were burned to ashes. From the intense heat of the fire, his entire body turned black. After this terrible accident, he lay on Ravanagiri mountain without hands or feet, like a "Madal" (tribal drum).

In this fire created by Jaganta, hundreds of forest creatures were burned to death. When the humans nearby ate the meat of those roasted animals and birds, they found its taste exceedingly pleasing. After this, humans learned to preserve (safeguard) fire and developed the art of cooking and eating food in fire. Thus, Jaganta Kindung became the original giver of fire and cooked food to human civilization.

To express gratitude to the lord who gave them fire and food, the people of the Saura tribe constructed a handless, footless "Daru Murti" (wooden idol) of Jaganta Kindung from a round log of neem wood, and began worshipping him as their chosen deity (Ishta-deva).

According to tribal culture and Odia folk traditions, this same "Jaganta Kitung," worshipped on Mount Ravanagiri, in due course was not confined merely to the Saura tribe but became the principal deity of all tribal and non-tribal communities of Kalinga, including the Odh, Kui, Kandha, Santal, and Gond peoples. This very tribal deity subsequently came to be established as the "national deity Shri Jagannath" of the entire unified land of Kalinga, at Nilachala (Puri).

Another major tribal form of Shri Jagannath is considered to be "Jangadev." Jangadev is regarded as the supreme deity particularly of the Kandha, Gond, and Dravidian tribes. Among the Dravidian tribes living in the Nabarangpur district of Odisha, Koraput, and the bordering Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, Jangadev is considered the creator of the universe, the great protector, and the chief originator of agricultural work.

**Chaitra Festival:** In these regions, a special agriculture-based worship of Jangadev is organized in the month of Chaitra. Farmers seek Jangadev's blessing before beginning new crops and cultivation.

According to an old belief, in ancient times the people of the Kandha, Gond, and Saura tribes used to worship Jaganta Kitung in their respective hill regions. When Jaganta Kitung came to be established as Shri Jagannath at the Nilachala Dhama (Shrikshetra) of Puri, the devotees of the Gond tribe, grieving at being separated from their deity, lay prostrate at the Lord's door — a practice called "Adhia" in Odisha.

Then the almighty Lord Jagannath gave his devotees a dream-command: "I am being worshipped in my half form (up to the waist/thighs) at the Nilachala Dhama in Puri. Take the remaining half form and worship it in your own region."

From that day onward, the half-formed wooden image of Shri Jagannath — up to the thighs (jangha) — has been worshipped with complete devotion by the Gond and Kandha tribes under the name "Jangadev," to this day. This folk legend stands as clear evidence of the extremely profound, harmonious, and inseparable relationship that has existed in India between Vedic culture and tribal (Adivasi) culture — where the Vedic "Matarishvan" of fire and the tribal "Jaganta Kitung" are different forms of the same supreme consciousness.