Devalok
Origin · 2 tellings · Pan-India, West India

The fish that warned the Bhils

A fish warns a brother and sister of a flood; afterwards Bhagwan, or in one telling Rama, sends them to repeople the world.

Who is in it

The story, beat by beat

  1. Bhagwan makes the earth and a brother and sister to live on it.
  2. The girl feeds a fish, which warns her that a flood is coming and tells them to build a cage.
  3. The flood comes and the pair survive in the cage.
  4. Afterwards Bhagwan, called Rama in one telling, asks the man to repeople the world.
  5. The couple have seven sons and seven daughters, from whom the Bhils descend.

flood fish first couple creation

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Folk documentation

Bhil oral tradition (Koppers 1940–41 and later collections)

West India · Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh Tribal Bhili-speaking Bhils

The Bhil flood story runs close to the Puranic tale of Manu but keeps its own cast. Bhagwan, whom Wilhelm Koppers documented as the Bhils' supreme deity, made the earth and set a brother and a sister on it. The girl was kind to a fish, and the fish warned her that the waters were coming and told the two to build a cage to ride them out. They survived. When the flood had gone Bhagwan asked the brother to fill the world again, and the pair had seven sons and seven daughters. In one collector's version the god who speaks after the flood is called Rama; whether that name reflects a Vaishnava layer over Bhagwan or the collector's own word is unclear and should stay flagged.

Bhil flood folklore; A Bhil story of creation; Bhil — Encyclopedia.com; Bhagwan, the Supreme Deity of the Bhils (Anthropos 35–36); Wilhelm Koppers (Bérose biography)

Primary text (translation)

Matsya and Manu (Puranic)

Pan-India Vaishnava

In the Shatapatha Brahmana and the Matsya Purana a small fish that Manu saves grows huge, warns him of the deluge and tows his boat, with the seven sages aboard, to safety; the fish is Vishnu.

What is different here:

The Bhil saviour is Bhagwan and an ordinary fish, the survivors are a brother and sister rather than Manu and the sages, and the outcome is a tribal genealogy of seven sons and daughters.

The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition; Bhil flood folklore

Sources: Bhil flood folklore; A Bhil story of creation; Bhil — Encyclopedia.com; Bhagwan, the Supreme Deity of the Bhils (Anthropos 35–36); Wilhelm Koppers (Bérose biography); The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition

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