One day at eventide as he was sitting with his beloved wife and child in the open courtyard of his house, they saw the moon appear in all its glory high up in the clear, serene sky. The child especially watched it thoughtfully for a long time and finally cried out to his father:
“Oh, that beautiful moon! How I wish I could grasp it in my hands and play with it. Father, please fetch it for me to play with.”
The father kindly remonstrated with the child, saying that the moon was very far away and there was no solid road for him to travel to get it. But the spoilt child would not be appeased by these gentle words. He cried incessantly and insisted on having the moon. He refused food and drink.
Consequently, he grew pale and haggard-looking. Jarang’s wife, unable to endure the distressing tantrums of the child any longer, scolded her husband, saying: “Do you wish the doleful cries of the child should continue till he dies? Surely, had you tried, you could have fetched the moon for him. Why not construct a staircase to the moon and drag it here within our reach once and for all.”
In her foolish mind she pooh-poohed the idea that it was an impossible task. So, the husband unable to bear any longer the constant nagging of his wife and the persistent crying of his child, decided to build a staircase to the moon. He assured his son that he was going to fetch the moon for him.
Jarang set about gathering together enormous quantities of wooden posts and bamboos wherewith to raise the intended structure, and piled up the needful material in one place. With the help of his nephew, he laid the foundation for the immense staircase. The job of fetching the wooden posts and bamboos from the huge pile was assigned to the nephew, while Jarang himself was occupied in erecting one staircase upon another.
When the staircase ascended far above the clouds, Jarang really believed that he was now certainly nearing the moon. He shouted from above to -his nephew below: “Bring up bamboos. Bring up bamboos.” His wife and nephew on the ground far below could not catch his words distinctly. To them it sounded as if he was shouting exultantly: ‘I’ve got the moon. I’ve got the moon. Hew down the staircase.”
Again and again they listened attentively and the same message seemed to be wafted down. Immediately the obedient nephew took up an axe and hewed down the main pillars of the enormous structure. Soon it fell with a tremendous crash, propelling Jarang through space to a distant place where he was killed instantaneously.
Not finding his fallen body, his wife and nephew waited expectantly for many days for him to return bearing triumphantly in his hands the cherished moon. But there was no further sign of the returning conqueror. After many more days of weary waiting, Jarang’s wife and nephew angrily concluded that he had furtively fled to the abode of the moon and stars.
The fallen heap of the staircase afterwards became a small range of hills which eventually came to be known as Jajong Kadoram. This small hill range can still be seen in Achik Asong up to this-day.
Told by Monjiram Shangma Koksi at Village Gumuria, District Kamrup (Folktales of the Garos: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY)
Illustration by Amrapali Das
