ABSTRACT
The Gonds’ elaborate seasonal rituals, which will be described presently, are based on the assumption that powerful divine beings can influence the course of nature and that man’s fate depends largely on their favour or disfavour. However exclusive the Gonds may be in social respects, in religious matters they are open-minded and ready to extend worship to any god or spirit from whose favour they expect any benefits. Many of the herbal concoctions of Gond bhaktal have undoubtedly real medicinal value, and famous bhaktal jealously guard the secret of their remedies. The most distinctive feature of Gond religion is the cult of the phratry and clan deities described by the generic term Persa Pen or Great God. The natural complement to Aki Pen, the Village Guardian, is Nat Auwal, the Village Mother, and most ritual occasions call for the worship of both these village deities.
