Mr. Hislop took down from a Pardhan priest a Gond myth of the creation
of the world and the origin of the Gonds, and their liberation from a
cave, in which they had been shut up by Siva, through the divine hero
Lingo. General Cunningham said that the exact position of the cave was
not known, but it would seem to have been somewhere in the Himalayas,
as the name Dhawalgiri, which means a white mountain, is mentioned. The
cave, according to ordinary Gond tradition, was situated in Kachikopa
Lohagarh or the Iron Valley in the Red Hill. It seems clear from the
story itself that its author was desirous of connecting the Gonds
with Hindu mythology, and as Siva's heaven is in the Himalayas, the
name Dhawalgiri, where he located the cave, may refer to them. It
is also said that the cave was at the source of the Jumna. But in
Mr. Hislop's version the cave where all the Gonds except four were
shut up is not in Kachikopa Lohagarh, as the Gonds commonly say;
but only the four Gonds who escaped wandered to this latter place
and dwelt there. And the story does not show that Kachikopa Lohagarh
was on Mount Dhawalgiri or the Himalayas, where it places the cave in
which the Gonds were shut up, or anywhere near them. On the contrary,
it would be quite consonant with Mr. Hislop's version if Kachikopa
Lohagarh were in the Central Provinces. It may be surmised that in the
original Gond legend their ancestors really were shut up in Kachikopa
Lohagarh, but not by the god Siva. Very possibly the story began with
them in the cave in the Iron Valley in the Red Hill. But the Hindu
who clearly composed Mr. Hislop's version wished to introduce the god
Siva as a principal actor, and he therefore removed the site of the
cave to the Himalayas. This appears probable from the story itself,
in which, in its present form, Kachikopa Lohagarh plays no real part,
and only appears because it was in the original tradition and has
to be retained. [45] But the Gonds think that their ancestors were
actually shut up in Kachikopa Lohagarh, and one tradition puts the
site at Pachmarhi, whose striking hill scenery and red soil cleft by
many deep and inaccessible ravines would render it a likely place for
the incident. Another version locates Kachikopa Lohagarh at Darekasa
in Bhandara, where there is a place known as Kachagarh or the iron
fort. But Pachmarhi is perhaps the more probable, as it has some deep
caves, which have always been looked upon as sacred places. The point
is of some interest, because this legend of the cave being in the
Himalayas is adduced as a Gond tradition that their ancestors came
from the north, and hence as supporting the theory of the immigration
of the Dravidians through the north-west of India. But if the view now
suggested is correct, the story of the cave being in the Himalayas is
not a genuine Gond tradition at all, but a Hindu interpolation. The
only other ground known to the writer for asserting that the Gonds
believed their ancestors to have come from the north is that they
bury their dead with the feet to the north. There are other obvious
Hindu accretions in the legend, as the saintly Brahmanic character of
Lingo and his overcoming the gods through fasting and self-torture,
and also the fact that Siva shut up the Gonds in the cave because
he was offended by their dirty habits and bad smell. But the legend
still contains a considerable quantity of true Gond tradition, and
though somewhat tedious, it seems necessary to give an abridgment of
Mr. Hislop's account, with reproduction of selected passages. Captain
Forsyth also made a modernised poetical version, [46] from which one
extract is taken. Certain variations from another form of the legend
obtained in Bastar are included.