Gish or Great Gish ( Kamkata-vari: ''Giṣ''/''Gaviṣ'') was the most popular god of Nuristani

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

and received the greatest amount of attention among the Siah-Posh Nuristani of Bashgul. Every village of Bashgul had one or more shrines dedicated to him. In the Nuristani

pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...

, Gish ranked next to

Moni Moni or Mone ( Kamkata-vari: ''Mone''/''Mune''), also known as Mandi (from Prasun) was, after Imra, the second-most important god in the pre-Islamic pantheon of the Nuristani people. With his breath, Imra created Moni and Gish. Moni was believe ...

who was said to be the chief

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

Imra Imra ( Kamkata-vari: ''Imro'') was the chief creator deity of the Nuristani people before their conversion to Islam. Imra was believed to be the creator of the earth. With his breath, it was believed, he created the three other main deities of th ...

. Both Moni and Gish were created by Imra by his breath. Gish was the war-god. His earthly name was Yazid, and he is stated to have killed ''Ali'', ''Hasan'' and ''Husain'' and nearly every famous Muslim known to the Nuristani. Countless bulls and billy goats were sacrificed each year to him and the drums were beaten in his honor for fifteen continuous days, every spring, by the Nuristani slaves.

Etymology

According to

Richard Strand Richard F. Strand is a linguist and anthropological researcher who is best known for his research into Nuristani languages and other little-known languages of Afghanistan and neighboring areas of Pakistan. He was trained at Cornell University. ...

, in his ''Nuristâni Etymological Lexicon'', it is related to the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

word ''gavíṣ''/''gaviṣá'' "desire for cows; eager", an epithet of Indra (with which he is functionally equivalent), in turn from Proto-Indo-Iranian ''*gawHíšHs'', with a later shift in meaning to "war". Cognates of Kamkata-vari ''giṣ''/''gaviṣ'' include

Ashkun The Nuristanis, formerly known as Kafiristanis, are an ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan. Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian langua ...

''gavīṣ'' and

Waigali Waigali (') is a language spoken by about 10,000 Nuristani people of the Waigal Valley in Afghanistan's Nuristan Province. The native name is ''Kalaṣa-alâ'' 'Kalasha-language'. "Waigali" refers to the dialect of the Väy people of the upp ...

''geṣ''. The presence of a retroflex ''ṣ'' indicates that the name was borrowed from

.Halfmann, Jakob. "Nuristani Theonyms in Light of Historical Phonology". In: ''6th Indo-European Research Colloquium'', 2022. OI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.31805.54244 www.researchgate.net/publication/359109254_Nuristani_Theonyms_in_Light_of_Historical_Phonology

In popular culture

In John Updike's 1965 short story "God Speaks" (collected in "Museums and Women") Gish Imra is the name of one of the protagonists, the son of the assassinated leader of a Central Asian state called

Nuristan Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, wi ...

References

External links

* Asian gods Indo-European deities War gods {{asia-myth-stub

Etymology

In popular culture

See also

References

External links