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on-creation-of-myths

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On Creation Myths and Oral Narratives

Author(s): Mamang Dai


Source: India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2/3, Where the Sun Rises When
Shadows Fall: The North-east (MONSOON-WINTER 2005), pp. 1-6
Published by: India International Centre
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23005996
Accessed: 17-03-2017 15:11 UTC

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NE
International Centre Quarterly

STOR_
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I
Where the 5un Rises
Creation Myths and Oral
Narratives
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Old lady at Longchang village

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Mamang Dai

On Creation Myths and


Oral Narratives

I n the villages the young girls are busy again at their


looms. They are weaving new cloth for the celebration
of the festival. I know if I asked them who taught us to
weave, they would burst into laughter and say, "Who knows
about these things? It was here before we were born!"
With oral narratives, there are no reference books, and
few recorded volumes in print. If you approached a village
elder who might be a storyteller, he would say, "What! What
kind of story, eh? How can anyone pull a story out of air,
eh?"
Yet I also know that if I persist, I will receive interesting
information and know, perhaps for the first time, that the
implements of weaving are a woman's protection, that the
first cotton grew out of the white feather of a kite, and that
yes, women do not hunt; but when a man kills a tiger he is
received at the village gate by women first, who hold out
woven red cloth around him to shield the hunter from the
avenging eyes of the killed animal.
Who said this should be done? Who instructed men
and women to erect a guardian gate at the entrance to every
village? Who told us that the leaves and branches of certain
trees are auspicious? One gateway leads to another. The
Greek word mythos means 'talk' or 'story.' And like the
original meaning of 'story' derived from the word
'storehouse,' a story begins to unfold as a storehouse of
many meanings....

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4 / On Creation Myths and Oral Narratives

The first stories we heard as children were about the


war between the fish and stars. That is why the catfish has
a big head because it had been struck with a large rock in
the course of the battle. The war is also the reason why fish
have gills, a sign of the slash marks made by the arrows of
the stars.
In many instances oral narrative is perceived as a
simple recounting of tales for young readers; but I have tried
this with children, showing them the first colour illustrations
of these old stories, and they have said hurriedly, just to be
polite, "Oh, what's that?" before dashing off to watch Bhoot
Kahani, or Batman and Hatim conquering the world.
This is the other characteristic of oral traditions. It
seems that their significance returns to us only when we
are older. By then we realise the need to identify ourselves
again as belonging to a particular place, a community; and
some signs for this lie with our stories. We are here today as
members of a particular community with a particular set of
beliefs, by an act of faith, because we reposed belief in the
'word' as composed in our myths and legends. In the world
of our ancestors this was the art of the storyteller, the
medicine man, the orator, the priest. Everyone knows the
stories, in one form or another; and it is this knowledge
that links the individual to a group. Perhaps this is why if
you asked someone to tell you a story they would say there
was nothing to tell, because now the stories are inseparable
from the routine of daily life, the customary practices of a
community... They are not even perceived as stories anymore
but as beliefs determining a way of life.

In this section the stories are but a small part of a vast


oral literature of the different linguistic groups of the region.
The North-east region of the country is known for its scenic
beauty, and most of the stories here focus on its myths of
creation: the birth of mountains, stars, good and evil, and
the birth of man; and these stories convey a sense of
grandeur in concept and feeling.
However, it must be owned that all our home states
are totally changed from what they once were. Today the
stories emerging from this region are more about bloodshed
and killings. This is an area that provokes thought and

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