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Batara Guru, a MythSource painting
Southeast Asian

Batara Guru

01Identity

Batara Guru in Southeast Asian tradition

Batara Guru's daughter, Boru Deak Parudjar, descended from the heavens into the primordial sea. In the Batak account from Sumatra, Batara Guru was the primal being, the creator of Earth and the first ancestor of humans. He sent a bird carrying soil down to the waters, so land could form for his daughter and seeds of creation could be planted. He then sent a young hero, described as an incarnation of himself, to Earth. The hero defeated Padoha, the primal serpent of the underworld, married Boru Deak Parudjar and populated the Earth with the first humans. In the Toba/Batak tradition of northern Sumatra, these actions made Batara Guru both creator of the inhabited earth and ancestor of the people who arose upon it.

SourceDictionary of Mythology (J. A. Coleman): Eabc8972-576D-4878-8C33-C9Ebd9D6F5A9· Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II: Batak

Top questions

The quick answers

02The myths

The myths of Batara Guru

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Batara Guru and the Batak Earth-Diver

Boru Deak Parudjar dived from the heavens into the primordial sea. Batara Guru, the primal being and creator of Earth in the northern Sumatran Batak account in Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II, was also the first ancestor of all human beings. His daughter had reached a world of water with no land for the seeds of creation. Batara Guru sent a bird from heaven carrying soil. The bird brought the soil down to the sea and made land for Boru Deak Parudjar. On that ground, she had a place to plant the seeds of creation.

Batara Guru next sent a young hero down from the heavens to Earth. The hero was an incarnation of Batara Guru himself, dispatched to confront Padoha, the primal serpent of the underworld. He descended to the newly made land, faced the serpent, and defeated it. After that victory, he married Boru Deak Parudjar. Together they populated the Earth with the first humans. Batara Guru stood as the first ancestor of humankind as well as the creator of the Earth on which they lived.

Batara Guru and the Batak Earth-Diver, a MythSource painting of the scene

3 sources· checked 2026-09-22

  1. 1Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-IIT1
  2. 2The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (David Leeming)T1
  3. 3Dictionary of Mythology (J. A. Coleman)T1
03Different accounts

Different accounts

›The accounts use different names for the underworld serpent, Padoha and Naga Pahoda, and describe the ending as the first humans or the first mortal.

    The accounts that differ: Dictionary of Mythology (J. A. Coleman), Eabc8972-576D-4878-8C33-C9Ebd9D6F5A9; Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II, Batak; The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (David Leeming)

    From “Batara Guru and the Batak Earth-Diver”