Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman who did not have any children.
Since he was a male, the old man work fields and the old woman was a housewife. She cleaned the house, managed the kitchen garden, husked the paddy, and did everything required of a good wife. The income he got by ploughing the field was enough for both of them to live. They were also god-fearing people. Their heartfelt prayers made the gods happy and the couple established a friendly relationship with the gods.
One fine day, the old woman was husking rice using a large wooden mortar and pestle. While she was doing that, Lord Soraren, the God of Heaven, came down to meet the old man.
As he was descending, the pestle, which was a very long one, that the old woman was using prevented Lord Soraren from reaching the earth. After repeatedly failing to descend, he gave up and returned to heaven.
The old couple realised that Lord Soraren had returned without seeing them and they felt very sad. The old man declared, “Since Lord Soraren returned without seeing us, we shall go and visit him instead.” The old woman replied, “Alright old man! Let us start our voyage tomorrow.” They finished their preparations for the next day. Each of them carried their back packs.
As soon as they reached Lord Soraren’s abode, they saw his numerous eyes filled with anger. So they decided to go in after his anger cooled down. They said to each other, “Maybe he is upset with us because we did not receive him properly when he came to our house. For the time being, let us go to the moon, Loidam Thaja Pakhangba’s abode, to rest for a while.”
They reached Loidam Thaja’s place and rested for a while. Loidam Thaja’s place was serene, calm and pleasant to live in. The old man and woman were so impressed with the beauty of Loidam Thaja’s abode that they decided to build a small hut for themselves and settle down there.
Their hut was built under a fig tree. Now that they were staying in Loidam Thaja’s calm and cool place, they were transformed into a young man and woman. The now young woman expressed her joy through her song:
Moon, moon, Thabungton!
Let me carry the young baby on my back
I will tie your baby carefully with my cloth
Kindly drop a bunch of fig
Please Thabungton!
On hearing this, Loidam Thaja dropped down a bunch of figs but to their dismay, the bunch fell right into their human waste near the house. The woman exclaimed, “Oh no! It fell into the excreta, it fell into the urine. How do we eat them!” Therefore, they requested the moon to drop another bunch. This time they caught the bunch and ate the figs. They lived a long, happy life after eating the figs.
A Folktale sourced from Manipuri Folktales by Yaisna Rajkumari.
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