Koyapunem

Koyapunem, meaning the way of nature, is followed by the Gonds, who call themselves Koitur and live in the forested hills of central India. Gond tradition credits its code of conduct, the Gondi Punem, to the ancestor-hero Pari Kupar Lingo, who gathered thirty-three disciples.

Above all stands the high god Baradeo, also called Bhagwan, who oversees the lesser gods but receives little fervent devotion. Worship goes to clan and village deities, ancestors and totems, among them the village mother goddess and each clan's own persa pen.

By 1337 the Gonds had founded Chanda, around 1200, and the Garha kingdom followed in the fourteenth century. Contact with Hinduism grew as their courts took Vishnu as patron deity and kings were sometimes cremated by Vedic rites, while the village cults carried on beneath.