The Deities of the Upper World in the Bashkir mythology

Abstract

The first written references to Bashkir deities appeared at the beginning of the 10th century. The Secretary of the Embassy of the Arabs to the Bulgars distinguishes 12 deities of the Bashkir people. However, this proved to be true. The deities which have been mentioned by him in his statement actually appear in Bashkir folklore. Foremost among these were the supreme creator Deity of the Sky and Birds - Samrau, and his wives the Moon Deity - Koyash, and the Sun Deity - Ai, respectively. Apart from these, according to the epic Ural-Batyr, divine daughters of the supreme Divine Samrau, the Swan-maiden - Homai (with the wife of Sun), and the Bird and Star maiden - Aihylyu (with the wife of Moon) belong to the gods of the upper world. Such characters of divine origin as maidens’ winged horses - Akbuthat and Kharysai are also depicted in the epic. Thus, the article, based on folk epic material, reveals the divine essence of the above mentioned characters, which can be confirmed by a number of parallels from fairy tales, riddles and legends of the Bashkir people. A great deal of attention is devoted to the linguistic material. To some of the characters and their names, the author gives the comparative material from the ancient Turkic, Iranian mythology and modern mythologies of Altaians, Kazakhs, Tatars, Chuvashes, Yakuts, and others.