Hence during a thunder storm may sometimes be heard the words “Ráonikho Ráonaiá hasùdang,” i.e. “Ráoná is chasing Ráoni.”
It is not impossible that the foregoing story may be a Kachári version, greatly altered, of a well-known episode told at length in the Rámáyana, i.e. the abduction of Sitá by Rávana the demon-king of Ceylon. The name Rávana in a slightly altered form (Ráoná) is not unknown among the Kacháris of this district (Darrang). About four or five miles south-west of the Událguri Tháná there are still existing the remains of a very fine earthwork road, known to this day as “Rowana’s embankment” (Rávanagarh), which gives its name to the Mauzá in which it is situated. The construction of this earthwork must have involved a large outlay of labour, but the tradition about it is that it was thrown up in a single night by Rávana and his followers, the Rákhshases, Asurs, &c.
N.B.—Among the Kacháris of the North Kachár Hills, the mode of accounting for thunder and lightning is very different from that given above, though towards the end of the account given by the late Mr. Soppitt[9] certain statements are made which would serve to show that the two theories have something in common.
[1] See A Collection of Kachári Folk-tales, &c., by J. D. Anderson, Esq., I.C.S. (retired). Assam Secretariat Press, Shillong, 1895. [↑]
[3] Gadán nai-hùi-nai means “observing omens.” [↑]
[4] The hideous Kuvera, god of wealth. He was a white man with three legs and eight teeth. Apparently, the same as the Hindu Pluto; and lord of the shades as well as of wealth. [↑]