Story of Tai Bida: Founder of Ganga lake

The story of Tai Bida: Founder of Ganga Lake (Gekar Sinyi)

Foot Print of Tai Bida on stone

(The star* mark words are local language-Nyishi)

          The story goes like this­ - Once when Tai bida went to far off into the mountain for hunting Tai Bida found a Mithun. As the mithun was a wild mithun, he captured it and brought it home. Tai Bida domesticated the mithun and to his surprise, the mithun brought him fortune. The mithun bore hundreds of mithuns. Bida started wondering what a lucky mithun he had found and also felt it unique and strange. It went long with the mithun and in spite of bearing abundant of babies; the mithun was healthy and young. Bida was happy and was living the life of prosperous and fame. His thousand mithun account him a great name. 

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Budum Langne

         



   The main part of the story starts here- One day for religious ritual, Bida thought of sacrificing a mithun. So he decided to sacrifice the mother mithun that he had found. Bida brought the mithun home from jungle and tied her near the house. Overnight while Bida and his family were talking about sacrificing the mithun, the mithun overheard their conversations. At night the mithun broke off the rope and all night she called for her babies. In the morning when Bida went out to see his mithun it was no more there. Instead he found thousands of footprints outside his house. At first Bida was wondering what a strange thing, the mithun broke off and ran away. But later he got worried, as he went to nearby places to look for his mithun and couldn’t find it. He went to nearby forest in search for his mithun but was unable to find even a single of his mithun. This time Bida really got worried and thought to go in search for his lost mithuns by following the footprints left by the mithuns as thousands of footprints was there and it all went in the same direction. It was easy for Bida to trace the path were the mithun went.

                   Bida went on in search for his lost mithuns. He went on searching and searching for his lost mithuns. He followed the footprint of his mithun through hills, plain and through the mountains.

He went on following the footprints from far mountains of Yupia(a place in P/Pare, now the headquarter) and went on through mountains, hills and finally reached Poma side(a place in P/Pare near Ganga Lake). In those days there were no one residing around these places. Bida followed footprints and at last reached the last ending of the footprints. All the footprints of his mithuns went directly into the lake. The lake is now known as GEKAR SINYI in our local language and is now called GANGA LAKE. The footprints of his thousand mithuns went directly into the lake. All the mithun were believed to be drowned in the lake. No one have seen what exactly took place in the Ganga Lake. 

     The mother mithun led his babies into the underworld. The footprint of the mithuns which went into the lake was still visible to years back in the days of grandparents, but not visible these days. Ganga Lake is now one of the tourist places in Arunachal Pradesh. It was first found by Tai Bida when he went in search for his lost mithuns. At last Bida went home disappointed. He felt very sad on losing all his mithuns and went home with heavy heart. It is said that Bida had more than thousand mithuns. After the long way to his search he couldn't bring back the mithuns home and went home alone.At last he was tired and he took rest in a rock by the way on the mountain. This place is now known as BUDUM LANGNE* (home of the snakes). A strange thing happened to Tai Bida on that spot. In our language we call it Swrr* (it happens to people who are usually haunted by spirits).

Budum Lange(Home of Snakes)

          As Bida stepped on the rock, his feet started sinking and his footprint was imprinted on the rock. He sat down on the rock and with sad heart, started narrating his story (Nyime Kabnam)*. He narrate how he found his mithun and how it bore him hundreds of mithuns and at last how she left him hopelessly with all her mithuns.

Bida walked around on the rock and his entire footprint started to imprint on the rock. Again he sat down on the rock and cried over his lost mithun narrating his story, at that moment suddenly so many snakes came out from a hole in the rock which is still visible today. These snakes are known as BALANG BUDUM* in our language and are believed to be spiritual and are not commonly seen by ordinary people. These snakes are supernatural and are believe to be the landlords of mountains. The snakes they crept and crawl around Bida as if they were dancing around him to comfort him. The seeing of these snakes is also believed to be swrr*. All of sudden the rock on which Tai Bida was sitting cracked out. It is still visible today in the rock (Budum Langne*).

foot mark of Tai Bida

Ganga lake (Gekar Sinyi Itanagar)

        The story doesn't end here. It is said that many strange things happened with Tai Bida after the drowning of his mithuns. But the story after this is known to very few people. After so many strange happenings, Bida and his family faced a lot of problems. Once Bida built a Seppe* (a locally made trap like a dam for catching big fishes). One morning he went to the Seppe* to see whether there was fish trapped or not. To his surprise he found a deer trapped instead of fishes. He took the deer home thinking it might have accidently fall into a river and was carried along with the river to his Seppe*. They ate the deer and thought nothing about it. Next morning again he was surprise to find another deer instead of fishes. This time Bida didn't take the deer home thinking something strange is happening with him and thought it not good to take the deer along with him. After these incidents Bida was really worried and at night in his dreams Uyi*(spirit) came and told him that…. Bida, you are the richest man in this land. Uyi*(spirits) have bless you and gave you the richness and properties, you are the most loved one of the Uyi*(spirits).

Seppe (a traditional method of catching fish)

        Third day Bida went to see his Seppe* again and to his surprise there was still a deer lying in the trap instead of fishes. This time Bida knew it was again a Swwr*. He went home disappointed and was very worried about it. It is believed in our society that whenever a Swwr* happens something very bad always happens, whether it is death in family, or owns death or a big disaster. After these weird incidents one night when all the villagers were sound asleep a heavy flood swipe out all the families of Bida and the entire village. And after that nothing was known of Bida.

        The story of Bida went on to different places and it was once a very famous talk in villages. But now most of our brothers in modernizing places don’t even have a clue of it. It is a request to all the brother and sisters of Arunachal Pradesh to keep our identity and our culture. Let’s go along with the developing world but also carrying along the culture and identities and also the most precious thing about us -who we are.