Accounts vary by region. In Batak myth Batara Guru is one of the upper-world gods (Debata na Tolu) born in a cosmogonic birth motif (eggs hatched by a divine hen) and is the divine father whose daughter (in fragmentary flood accounts named Puti-orla-bulan or Siboru Deak Parujar) is sent to recover the earth from the abyss in a flood narrative. In Bugis tradition a divine figure named La Togeq Langiq (identified with Batara Guru) is described as being sent to earth to cultivate it in human form. In Indonesian Hindu and Javanese contexts Batara Guru is presented as the guru-aspect of Siwa/Shiva and the primordial teacher among the gods.
Descriptions differ by local performance and cosmology. In Javanese wayang kulit Batara Guru is uniquely depicted with feet facing forward, four hands, pointed canine teeth, a blue neck, paralyzed legs, and riding the vahana Nandini (the cow). In Luwu ethnographic description (Errington) he is characterized metaphysically as formless, potent, invisible and unlocatable—"perfectly one without form who is everything, everywhere all the time." Bugis material implies an incarnate form when sent to earth but does not provide a single standardized anthropomorphic portrait.
Regionally specific roles include: creator and world-recoverer in Batak flood material (sending his daughter to recover the earth from the abyss); supreme spiritual teacher and revealer in Indonesian Hindu and Javanese formulations (the guru or Dakshinamurti aspect of Shiva, giver of revelation and spiritual authority); ancestor and progenitor who begets lineages and important mythic descendants in Batak and Bugis traditions (e.g., Bugis filiations such as Batara Lattuq and the ancestry connected to Sawerigading in Sureq Galigo). Sources also describe him as syncretically identified with or described as transcending Indian categories (Shiva and, in some summaries, broader categories such as Brahma, Vishnu and Buddha) in localized Indonesian theology.
Batara Guru
Batara Guru is a supreme divine figure in multiple Indonesian mythological traditions (Indonesian Hinduism, Batak, Bugis, Javanese). He functions variously as a guru-aspect of Shiva, a creator or world-recoverer in Batak narrative fragments, an ancestor and progenitor in Bugis and Batak genealogies, and a high deity of the kahyangan in Javanese cosmology.
Batara Kala
Batara Kala is a Javanese and Balinese underworld deity associated with death, time, and destruction; feared as an ogre-like devourer of the unlucky, he is also ritually propitiated to avert misfortune, especially for at-risk children.
Baba Yaga
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*Perkʷūnos
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*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
57 Mnemosyne
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Abaddon
In Hebrew scripture Abaddon is primarily a noun meaning 'destruction' or a section/condition of the underworld paired with Sheol; in the New Testament Book of Revelation Abaddon is personified as an angelic figure (Greek Apollyon) described as the king of an army of locusts released from the abyss during the apocalypse.
Aban Yasht
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Abath
No corroborated folkloric entity named "Abath" is documented in the provided sources. The string appears in the supplied material only as a surname/personal name in Aruban/Dutch-Caribbean archival records and as an unrelated taxonomic or encyclopedic hit; no mythic attributes, origin stories, rituals, or apotropaic practices for an entity called Abath are present in the documents reviewed.
Abatur
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Abatwa (Twa / Batwa)
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Abellio
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Abraham
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Abraun
Abraun is an attested name in German-language plant-legend scholarship (Der abraun, ein beitrag zur pflanzensagenkunde, 1916) and a short database entry (Wikidata) labels it as a spirit from German mythology. Surviving accessible documentation is extremely limited: the principal academic treatment is a 1916 contribution to pflanzensagenkunde (plant-saga studies), but the excerpts available here contain only bibliographic metadata and do not record tales, descriptions, or rituals.
Abtin
Abtin (Persian: آبتین), attested also as Athwya, is a mythic ancestral figure in Iranian tradition described in Avestan and later epic literature as one of a small set of formative human-like figures involved in preparing the corporeal world and as the father of the epic hero-king Fereydun in the Shahnama.
Community Record
- [1]Batara Guru - Wikipedia. Wikipedia: 'Batara Guru (also called Bhattara Guru, Debata Batara Guru and Batara Siwa) is the name of a supreme god in Indonesian Hinduism.'; etymology and listing of alternative names; Luwu description summary; Javanese wayang description.wiki
- [2]Wikidata: Batara Guru. Wikidata entry for Batara Guru (identifier and linked data).other
- [3]Flood Folklore: Batak (fragment). Fragmentary Batak flood account: 'The god Batara Guru, to recover it from the abyss, sent his daughter Puti-orla-bulan (who had requested the mission)...' (Batak flood motif and role as world-recoverer/ancestor-progenitor source).folk
- [4]BATARA GURU - the Batak, Bugis and Javanese God of Creation (Godchecker). Overview of Batara Guru across Batak, Bugis and Javanese materials (syncretic identification with Shiva and creator/teacher roles).other
- [5]Batara Guru : The Supreme God - Mythlok. Summaries of regional depictions and functions of Batara Guru in Indonesian traditions.other
- [6]Archive: Grinder's Switch, Episode 35 (KFAI). Recorded media item listed among collected sources (playlist includes a recorded track titled 'Batara Guru' but provides no further mythological data).other
- [7]Batara Kala - Wikipedia (related pantheon context). Related deity referenced in source notes to indicate pantheon context where Batara Guru appears.wiki