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The name ‘Kaziranga’ is famous forits ‘One-horn Rhinoceros’. It comprisesthe areas adjoining to the Northeasternpart Karbi Anglong district of Assam.The areas known by its present nameis associated with the popular mythbehind the given name of ‘Kaziranga’.According to a Karbi legend, HokRonghang established a Karbi Territoryaround the present ‘Kaziranga Park’.The name of his wife was Bong-eTeronpi who gave birth to threechildren, - two daughters and one son.The names of those two daughterswere Kading Ronghangpi and KazirRonghangpi while the name of her onlyson was Khoi Ronghang. Between thetwo sisters, Kazir Ronghangpi, theyounger one, was very beautiful andangelic to look at. She was lookinglike an unassuming amazing fairy ofthe heavenly abode.One day, Kazir Ronghangpi had aquarrel with her parents and ran awayfrom her home. She was seven yearsold then. The little Kazir Ronghangpiwas feeling hungry and thirsty and shewas roaming here and there alone inthe jungle. Finally, she saw a beautifulriver flowing with cool and clear water.She went near the river to drink there.Meanwhile, seven beautiful angels hadseen little Kazir and highly impressedby her divine soul in her. The sevenbeautiful angels took her to the abodeof God, she spent there for twenty-fouryears, and thus she had attained herdivinity in her young age.Meanwhile, Hok Ronghang becameold, he had handed over his territoryto his son, Khoi Ronghang to rule hiskingdom, and thus he got retirementfrom the affairs of the state’sadministration. In the meantime, somemisfortunes took place in the kingdomof Khoi Ronghang. Khoi RonghangTHE MYTH BEHIND THE NAME OF KAZIRANGAwas found missing from his kingdom.Finally, it had come to know that theenemy of Khoi Ronhang, the ruler ofterritory, had killed him very brutally ina chunky forest. Thus, Hok Ronghangand his wife, Bong-e Teronpi, had tolive a solitary and miserable life duringthe old age. In the meantime, theiryounger daughter, Kazir Ronghangpi,came down from the abode of God andshe had revived her brother’s life fromhis bereavement through her divinepowers.Kazir loved her brother and othermembers of her family very much.Therefore, she asked all gods andgoddesses to look after her family onearth. She came down to this earthfrom the abode of God with one hornedRhinoceros and Sarsomon Ronghang(Kartik). Her purpose of bringing onehorned Rhinoceros and SarsomonRonghang to this mother earth was tomake him cultivate paddy (Rice)cultivation with the help of one-hornRhinoceros on this earth. Kazir hadbrought this one-horn Rhinoceros(Kindu) from the abode of God. Shebrought them with her from theheavenly abode as per good advice ofthe seven beautiful angels to help outin the paddy fields of Hok Ronghangfor plowing at the present Kazirongaarea.Thus, Sarsomon Ronghang startedto cultivate paddy with the help of onehornRhinoceros and started to feedrice to birds, animals, insects,butterflies and bees, etc. Meanwhile,Sarsomon Ronghang finishedharvesting his paddy and was readyto go to his heavenly abode. He triedto take the Rhinoceros (Kindu) withhim but the animal refused to complyit and ran away to the thick junglealong with other animals, birds and- Dhaneswar Engtiliving creature. Thus, SarsomonRonghang left for his heavenly abodewithout taking Rhinoceros (Kundu) withhim. Therefore, Karbi people came tobelieve that one-horn Rhinoceros(Kindu) is here on earth at Kazirangasince then. Its thick skin believed tobe the thick cushion clothes and ropeused by Sarsomon Ronghang whileplowing in the paddy field. In addition,Rhinoceros (Kindu) still believed to bethe symbol of ‘LAKSHMI’, which bringsa good harvest to the farmers. It is thesymbol of wealth and riches as perKarbi’s believe. Hence, killing ofrhinoceros is a great sin for humanityas per the Karbi’s faith and credence.After passing out for a few years,Kazir’s parents, Hok Ronghang andBong-eh Teronpi, died. Her sister,Kading Ronghangpi also got married.Therefore, Kazir Ronghangpi had toperform the last rites of her parentsaccording to Karbi customs andtraditions.After the performance of the deadceremony of her parents, one day, shethought of going back to the abode ofGod and finally she flew to the abodeof gods and goddesses for eternally.Kazir Ronghangpi proclaimed justbefore her going back to the abode ofGod by saying so, – “This land of mybirth will be known as the ‘Territory ofKazir Ronghangpi’ after my name fromnow and the years to come, becausethis land has blessed me to live withthe Gods and Goddesses in the abodeof God.” Thus, the Karbis used to callthe name of the village of KazirRonghangpi as ‘Kazir Arong’ in duecourse of time.Thus, the present name of‘Kaziranga’ has appropriately derivedfrom the popular story of a legendarydivine soul of Kajir Ronghangpi.(Contd. from Previous Page)Pune Remembers Kiang Nongbah’s...freedom fighters from North East to the rest of India. It will encourage national integration and make people aware of thefreedom struggle in North East India,” said Deodhar.On the occasion, Dr Ganesh Raut, a well known historian and professor from Pune, expressed the need of includingchapters on social leaders and freedom fighters from North East India in the academic history books in Maharashtra.Meanwhile, a group of Meghalaya students in Pune sang patriotic song during the program. Dr Bhanudas Deshmukh,Mahesh Pawle, Shivaji Kharat and writer Shashidhar Bhave were also present on the occasion. (Meghalaya Times 4.1.2013)Heritage Explorer 8 January 2013