One thing that one realizes about the North East is that it cannot be reduced into a monolithic tradition, given its cultural, religious, tribal and linguistic plurality. It is said that India has 635 tribal communities out of which 200 are found in the North East. This presence of a baffling mix of ethnic communities add to diverse cultural patterns which are reflected most strongly in the myths, folktales and various types of oral traditions. Oral traditions express the textures and history of a community and their worldview. I was initiated into myths and legends of the North East, Thanks to my visit to Don Bosco Centre for Indegenious Culture, Shillong that has many publications in this regard. In this write up I will include two Myths from the Adi Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. Before that I wish to set a framework to view myths in general as today widely myths are used in a very negative sense.
How Does One Understand Myth?
Karen Armstrong in her magisterial work “The Case For God” says that in most pre-modern cultures, there were two recognized ways of thinking, speaking and acquiring knowledge. The Greeks called them mythos and logos.Both were essential and neither was considered superior to the other; they were not in conflict but complementary. Each had its own sphere of competence and it was considered unwise to mix the two. Logos(reason) was the pragmatic mode of thought that enabled people to function effectively in the world. It had, therefore, to correspond accurately to external reality. People have always needed logos to make an efficient weapon, organise their societies or plan an expedition. Logos was essential for the survival of our species. But it had its limitations. It could not assuage human grief or find ultimate meaning in life’s struggles. For that people turned to mythos or myth. Today we live in a society of scientific logos and myth has fallen into disrepute. In popular parlance myth is something that is not true. But myth was not supposed to be self indulgent fantasy; rather it helped people to live creatively in a very confusing and chaotic world. Myth has been called a primitive form of psychology. When a myth described heroes threading their way through labyrinths, descending into the underworld or fighting monsters, these were not understood as primarily factual stories. They were designed to help people negotiate the obscure regions of the psyche, which are difficult to access but which profoundly influence our thought and behaviour. People had to enter the warren of their minds and fight their personal demons. When Freud and Jung began to chart their scientific search for the soul, they instinctively turned to ancient myths. But myth would not be effective if people simply believed in it. It was essentially a programme of action. It could put you in the correct spiritual or psychological posture but it was up to you to take the next step and make the truth of the myth a reality in your own life. Myth is accompanied by ritual that makes the abstractness of the myth a concrete rooting and story or a narrative that gives coherence to the fabric of the myth.
As a practice, storytelling has been a means of handing down to generations certain cultural values, practices and beliefs among many tribal societies of North East India. The stories constitute an archive of teaching-learning material and are used for educational purposes in preliterate and oral societies, as Esther Syiem argues, “folktale is the repository of cultural values that inform the present and invests it with a living sense of tradition”.
In the study of myths one sees that the most common feature among all communities is the myth of origin and myth of death. This is the age old philosophical quest of “Who am I? Where did I Come From? Where am I going?” In this section we are going to explore the myths of Adi Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. But before that we will have a very brief introduction of the Adi Tribe.
The Adi Tribes:
The Adi, is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh, and they are found in the temperate and sub-tropical regions within the districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Dibang Valley. The older term Abor is a deprecated exonym from Assamese meaning 'uncontrol'. Some of them are found in Southern Tibet (a little more north than South Tibet), around areas near the Indian border. The literal meaning of Adi is "hill" or "mountain top”. The Adis have two main divisions, (The Bogums and Bomis) and under each there are a number of sub-tribes. The Minyongs, Karkos, Shimongs, Bomdo, Janbos, Panggis, Palibos, Bogums, Padams, Milangs and so on from one group; while the Gallong and seven other groups constitute another group of Adis. The Adis by nature are democratic and have a unique sense of history. The traditional measure of a family's wealth is the possession of beads and ornament and land. Adi celebrate their prime festival, Solung, between in the first week of September every year for five days or more. It is a harvest festival performed after the sowing of seeds and transplantation, to seek for future bumper crops. Ponung songs and dances are performed during the festival. At the last day of Solung, throne and indigenous weaponry are displayed along the passage of the houses, a belief that they would protect people from evil spirits.
The majority of Adi traditionally followed the animist Donyi-Polo (Sun-Moon) religion, which involves the worship of the sun, the moon, and the ancestral god, the shaman, called Miri, can be a female. Other deities traditionally worshipped by the Adi include Kine Nane, Doying Bote, Gumin Soyin and Pedong Nane. Each deity is associated with certain tasks and act as protector and guardian of various topics related to nature which revolves around their daily life. This included the food crops, home, rain, etc.
Now may be we are in a better position to appreciate the myths we are going to know about. So let’s get started.
Origin of Universe:
According to the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, have a myth called Keyum-Kero (Emptiness), through which they trace the origin of the universe and of all the living things. It is as follows.
"In the beginning emptiness pervaded the universe. there was no light no matter and no sound. This state of emptiness was known as Keyum-Kero. Eventually a spontaneous process of evolution unfolded itself from this emptiness. A tiny, imperceptible patch of darkness gradually developed from Keyum-Kero. It was calledYumkang. After a long time, that imperceptible patch of darkness generated Kasi (Nothingness). Kasi was still as inappreciable as Yumkang. It had no form, no size and no existence. Then, Kasi brought forth Siang, which is yet another invisible tiny particle of mist. From Siang, developed wet dark particles resembling clouds, known asBomuk. Out of Bomuk, the next evolutionary process was the coming out of an inky, tiny layer of cloud hovering in the space known as Mukseng. Out of Mukseng, came Sedi and Melo which were the first physical manifestations emerging from the incomprehensible Keyum-Kero. Sedi, a female being turned into the earth, while Melo, the male became the sky. In order to continue the creative process, they married each other and began to produce various offspring in the world. At that time, Sedi was a dirt filled mass in a semi-liquid form. It was uninhabitable as there was no light, no air and no habitable land. In due course of time, Sedi produced various objects. Her huge unending stream of mucous grew into rivers and lakes, her hair into grasses and trees, bodily fluid into huge masses of water and her breath became air which began to circulate on the earth's surface. Sedi and Melo came together from time to time begetting offsprings of various forms and natures. Their offsprings started ruling different spheres of life on the earth. Their first progenies were Sepi Yokmo and Sepang Yokmo who were gods of smithery (like ironsmiths, silversmiths, goldsmiths). Dinom Yokmo was born next. He was the originator of wild birds and animals. Sengo Orne, the god of light was also born of Sedi and Melo. Also out of the union of Sedi and Melo came Yidum Bote, Doying Bote, Litung and Limang. Litung and Limang married and they gave birth Pedong Nane. Pedong Nane inturn married Yidum Bote, the God of wind. Together they gave birth to millions of offsprings who filled the earth. Their children were the spirits, human beings, snakes, frogs, monkeys and many other beings."
Interpretation: The complex evolution theory is rather very interesting. According to Dr. B. S. Guha, to the Adis, all existence is endowed with life and the evolution of what we consider inanimate, must have also come through the normal physiological process of birth. I personally loved the complexity of layers that evolved from emptiness to become physical objects Sedi-Melo. Dr Elwin Verrier notes that “The Stories of the origin of creation of the universe, the sky and the earth, , and the heavenly bodies, have almost Miltonic grandeur. Sedi (earth) andMelo (sky) are lovers and when sky makes love to earth every kind of tree and grass and living creatures come to being. But the lovers must be separated, for so long as they are together there is no place for their children (all animate and inanimate creatures) to live. But M. L. Bose in ‘History of Arunachal Pradesh’ says that what is incredible about this myth of origin is the sense of oneness between humans and all other living creatures as the source is the same and this promoted a Bio- Centric worldview rather than an Athropocentric one.
Origin of Death: This is the myth told by the Minyongs tribe (A section of the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh) about the first appearance of death in the land of the living. It goes this way.
"There was a man called Ninur Botte who made an earthen vessel. He invested a lot of time and energy in the process. In the end, he picked the product of his hand and with great appreciation started to examine it. But unfortunately, he dropped it and the earthen vessels crashed into pieces falling on the ground. With great desperation and anger he tried to put it together, but to no avail. He shouted in desperation, 'Why can't I mend it? I invested so much time and energy to make it.' Donyi-Polo (the Sun Moon God) looked at him and said, 'You did well to make it, you did ill to break it' Ninur Botte asked 'How was it that I did ill?' Donyi-Polo said, 'Because from today, humans will die.' This is how death came into the land of the living. Had it been possible to put together what was broken, humans would have lived forever."
Interpretation: The question arises how the two images are related. The myth expresses the perception in a series of imagery using symbols in the process. One is the acceptance of universality and inevitability of death. The other is the irreversibility of natural events. The two get connected in the imagery of broken pot. The story seems to indicate that one cannot go back to the original position once it has been passed. The original vessel cannot be remade again. The making of the vessel is the process of conception and birth. Vessel in itself is life and the breaking is death. So the vessel was, and is no more. The man was and is no more. Hence the connection.
Conclusion: Myths are very important in the journey of humanity. Today when technology, science and market concentrate on the centrality of humans, these myths remind us of the magnanimity, inter-relatedness and oneness of all living and non-living beings. Myths are the quest of humans to find meaning to life’s profoundest questions. I feel, like Karen Armstrong suggested, there should be a balance between the mythos and logos. The only obstacle to open the vast repository of knowledge veiled in myths is our prejudice towards them. We need to engage with them.
P.S.: I took around 13 days to write this because as a novice and no guide other than books, this was very tough and challenging. May be the way i wrote this maybe a bit tedious. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this exploration and wanted the ones reading to be part of this wonderful journey into the unknown.
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