What is "danu"

In Irish mythology, Danu (; modern Irish Dana ) is a hypothetical mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann (Old Irish: "The peoples of the goddess Danu"). Though primarily seen as an ancestral figure, some Victorian sources also associate her with the land.

Danú is an Irish traditional music band.

The founding members of Danú (Donnchadh Gough, Dónal Clancy, Daire Bracken, and Benny McCarthy) met in Waterford in Ireland in 1994, and consolidated as a band after performing in the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in 1995.

Their second album, Think Before You Think (2000) was voted Best Overall Traditional Act by Dublin's magazine Irish Music. They are the only band to have been voted Best Traditional Group twice in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, in 2001 and again in 2004 when their version of Tommy Sands's "County Down" also won Best Original Song.

The name Danu can mean:

• A water goddess in Indo-European religion
• An ancient Scythian word meaning "river". The commonly proposed etymology of the names of the Danube River, Dnieper River, Dniester River, Donets River and Don River
• Danu (Irish goddess)
• Danu (Asura)
• Danu people, an ethnic group in Myanmar
• Danu language, a Burmish language in Myanmar
• Danu, Glodeni, a commune in Glodeni district, Moldova
• Danu, Iran, a village in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran

Dānu, a Hindu primordial goddess, is mentioned in the Rigveda, mother of the Danavas. The word Danu described the primeval waters which this deity perhaps embodied. In the Rigveda (I.32.9), she is identified as the mother of Vrtra, the demonic serpent slain by Indra. In later Hinduism, she becomes the daughter of Daksha and the consort of Kasyapa.

As a word for "rain" or "liquid", dānu is compared to Avestan dānu "river", and further to river names like Don, Danube, Dneiper, Dniestr, etc. There is also a Danu river in Nepal. The "liquid" word is mostly neuter, but appears as feminine in RV 1.54.