India, May 14 -- By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist

When we think of creation myths in our country, we usually jump to the big Sanskrit stories: Brahma sitting on a lotus, Vishnu sleeping on the serpent, Shiva dancing the cosmos into being. But India is not just Vedas and Puranas. India is also Bhil, Gond, Santhal, Khasi, Banjara, Dhangar, Koli, Toda, Rabari, Munda, Nicobarese and Lepcha. Each of these communities has its own memory of how the world began.

For Bhils of western India, the world began when their deity Babo Pithora dived into the primordial ocean and brought up mud. From this mud came earth. Babo and Rani Kajal decorated the earth like a painted wall, filling it with colour and life. To th...