ABSTRACT
The social norms regulating the tribal life of the Gonds are firmly rooted in mythology. Guardians of the sacred lore are not the Gonds themselves, but the hereditary bards, the Pardhans and Totis, who recite at each of the major annual feasts the appropriate myths ar legends; it is largely the manner of recitation by a principal bard and his two assistants which must be held responsible for their successful transmission from father to son. The myth of Sungalturpo recorded is recited by all Pardhans of the Pandwen Saga—that section of the six-brother phratry which claims descent from the six brothers confined in the primeval cave—and is widely known among Gonds both of this and other phratries. Back in Dhauragiri Parvati suckled the Gond gods at her right breast and the left breast she gave to the Telugu and Maratha gods.
