In the beginning, there was only water. Deep down the ocean was the earth.
As, there was no land, the supreme Lord “Thakur- Jiu” created aquatic animals first – namely the crab, the crocodile, the alligator, the boarfish, the prawn, the earthworm, the tortoise, and others.
After that, the Lord wondered,” Whom shall I make now?”
He decided he will make a man and a woman. Soon, Thakur took some earth from the bottom of the ocean and created two human beings. Thakur just finished making the two humans and was about to put the soul in them, but the “Sin Sadom” (Day-horse) came down from heaven and trampled them to pieces. When Thakur got to know about this, he was furious.
Dejected, the Lord decided that he would not make them of the earth but shall make birds first. So, he pulled the material from his chest and made a gander “Hans” and a goose “Hansil”.
They looked beautiful together. Just when the Thakur blew life in them, they flew together far away. But as there was no land anywhere to be found, the Hans and the Hansil would always come back and sit on the Thakur’s shoulders.
Once the Day-horse came down from heaven to drink water. He was exhausted from the travel, and his mouth was foaming as a result of this. A big lump of foam fell from his mouth on the ocean.
The Thakur said to the birds “Go Hans and Hansil, make this froth your home”. The birds did as the Thakur said. The froth carried the birds like a boat on the endless water.
But there was another problem. There was no food for the birds. So, they went back to Thakur and explained their situation. After listening to the issues of Hans and Hansil, Thakur decided, “Let, there be earth above water.”
So, Thakur called upon the alligator and asked him, “Will you be willing to bring up earth from the bottom of the ocean to build an island. The alligator was obliged to fulfil Thakur’s desires and be of service to him.
The alligator went down the ocean, put some soil on its back, and came back up. As soon it reached the top, it realized that all the earth it was carrying got dissolved in the water. Thakur saw that the alligator had given up. So, Thakur called upon the prawn to bring back some earth from the bottom of the ocean. The prawn tried to bring some in its claws, but again it got dissolved in the water. After that, Thakur called the boarfish and the stone crab, but none of them could bring any soil to the surface.
Finally, without much hope left Thakur called upon the earthworm and asked him whether he would bring up soil from the bottom of the ocean. The earthworm agreed, but it wanted the tortoise to stand on the water first.
So, Thakur called upon the tortoise and asked whether he would be willing to stand on the water so that earthworm could bring up soil from the bottom of the ocean. The tortoise agreed to Thakur’s request and so to keep the tortoise steady, Thakur chained the four legs of the tortoise in four directions.
The earthworm then put its head on the bottom of the ocean and its tail over the tortoise’s back. The earthworm swallowed earth from the bottom of the sea and brought it up on the tortoise’s back. After some time, there was enough soil for the entire world. Thakur then ploughed the land to flatten it, and those places with an excessive heap of dirt became hills and mountains.
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One day, the foam which was floating around got stuck to the landmass. Thakur took this opportunity to sow the first seed on that froth- The Sirom seed. After that he planted the dhubi grass, then karam tree followed by tope sarjom, labar atnak, ladea matkom, and then all other kinds of vegetations. These trees made the earth firm.
Hans and Hansil made a nest for themselves with sirom plants, and Hansil laid two eggs in them. Hans would go around to find and bring food while Hansil would incubate the eggs. When the eggs hatched, two human beings were born: a boy and a girl.
Seeing the two human babies Hans and Hansil were delighted but also got worried. They asked Thakur “ How shall we feed our babies?” Thakur gave them some cotton and said that “Whatever you eat press the juice of that in the cotton and put it in their mouth to suck. By sucking and getting nutrition this way, the babies grew and started to walk tiny steps.
Hans and Hansil were anxious about where would they put these two children when they grow up. So, Thakur asked them to fly around and look for landmasses.
They went towards the west and found a place names Hihiri-Pipiri. The two birds returned to Thakur and informed him about what they saw. The Thakur said Hans and Hansil that they should take the babies there when they are old enough to take care of themselves.
So, when they became old enough, Hans and Hansil carried there by putting them on their backs and flying them to Hihiri-Pipiri. The names of the first humans were Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi. Both of them grew up in Hihiri-Pipiri eating grains of the sumtu bukuc grass and sama grass.
And they lived there happily ever after.
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Note- The above story has numerous other versions, some versions significantly different from this one. This story, in particular, is the version which was told by Santal Guru Kolean who was a disciple of Guru Buku.