Khond

The Khonds, a Kui-speaking tribal people of the hills of Odisha and the Eastern Ghats, blend totemism, animism, ancestor worship and shamanism, and their worship is aimed above all at the earth, which was held to be the creator and sustainer of the world. The earth deity later came to be addressed as a god, Dharni Deota, with the hunting god Bhatbarsi Deota as his companion.

Each stage of farming and hunting had its rite, among them the Meriah, in which a bought human victim was sacrificed to make the soil fertile. British writers condemned the practice.

Long contact with Odia-speaking Hindus brought Kali and Durga in as forms of Dharani. From 1753 the Khonds of the Ghumsar hills repeatedly rose against the East India Company.