I would like to introduce the picture book "Story of cosmic forest." which I produced before I started my activities at the Mithila Museum.
A fish who ate stars.
A fish having golden fins lived in a cosmic forest.
He gulped stars if found any.
He swam all the way if a little light could be seen in the forest.
Thousand years passed gulping stars and his body became bigger and started shining.
More stars were eaten, bigger the fish grew and has become extremely big.
Sheela, Goddess of Night sky, wondered why forest was becoming darker.
One day when she was in a happy mood playing the music of stars, she heard sound coming from deep forest.
Deiye Sarienmoh,
Deiye Sarienmoh,
Moh, Moh,
The Goddess flew toward the sound riding on a shining star called “Geet”.
Noticing the Goddess approaching, the big fat fish stopped eating stars and ran away.
Realizing the cause of darker night sky, the Goddess in anger took the ring of stars and threw at the fish.
The ring of stars with brilliant shine chased the fish giving a sound of Shruu Shruu Shruu.
As golden fins were broken the fish fell into the darkness in no time.
Plenty stars came out of the fish’s mouth and were flown away into night sky.
The fish kept on falling down and was becoming smaller.
The fish endlessly grew smaller and was dropped in the sea of stars at last.
Birds caught the star firmly and started flapping wings, then sea started rippling.
and the star started climbing up into sky.
They flew over many clouds. They kept on flying even in rain.
There were some birds who could not fly any more.
They flew out of the black rain clouds somehow and found a white mountain.
At last they were successful in taking the star to the top of high mountain.
When stars appeared in sky, birds went back.
The star was happy as he could see his own country, but he did not know how to climb up further. He was looking forward to see the night every day.
Thus, he had to stay there for long time till he turned out to be a steep white mountain. He remembered sadly about Goum, seashell, which became sea and
about birds which became sky.
One night a shooting bright star fell into sea and after that sea started
shining night and day.
The star which turned to be white mountain wished to meet the shooting star.
The star of white mountain wanted to walk and search
Time passed,
They say the high mountain is still walking in sea.
Elephant who lived in a forest of stars.
Body of the elephant spread away in sky to become many stars but
white task could not.
It was stuck on the star for a very long time.
One day the star moved and went into the endless bottom of cosmos.
They say the biggest shooting star was seen in the cosmos on that day.
Cat who could feel the movement of stars.
Once upon a time many small countries existed beside river Nile of Egypt.
Fikelos, one of those countries was ruled by young king called Atthela.
People suffered from big famines and the floods of river Nile.
King Atthela invited the elite astronomers from nearby countries and
asked them to find out about the premonition of coming calamities but
nobody could give a correct prediction.
One morning the king ordered his messenger to go and call Kantala who was a
great astronomer and told him that he dreamed the shining star which he
never had seen before. The king asked if the dream was a prewarning of some
calamity coming. Kantala thought for a while and then he told him about
a strange story told recently. It was about a cat who lived in a forest of desert.
Name of the cat was Jiverus. It was a country where dwarfs lived.
The story was whenever Jiverus, the cat, made a strange gesture as if she felt
something unusual happened, the silvery shooting star appeared in sky.
King decided to send his messengers to the country.
They started for a long journey of desert carrying many gifts and golden headdress
for the cat.
Several months later dark skinned young boy Tirus and Jiverus with golden headdress travelled toward the country near the river Nile.
Tirus played a single stringed harp, and Jiverus sang whenever stars shined.
Jeetala Tokina,
Jeetala Tokina,
Safyu Takina
Mayfi Fina
When they reached the country of Fikelos, whole country was filled with joy.
The king went out of his palace to welcome them while drums were beaten.
The sound was so loud it went over the river Nile to reach the neighboring countries.
The young boy Tirus was shocked to find many weak and weary people.
King invited them and a party was held in their honor.
King spoke to Tirus about famines. Bards also started to sing the
unfortunate calamities happened to the country.
On the same night. Tirus a young boy promised King he would stay in this country with Jiverus.
Inside the garden of the palace, a house was built with leaves Jiverus favored and they started staying in the house.
The duty of the boy was to inform astronomers if Jiverus, the cat felt something odd about the stars.
Three years passed.
Jiverus and Tirus, young boy, were playing on the grass as usual.
The day when big red sun was directly above the country of Fikelos
Jiverus, the cat, behaved unusually and looked up the backward of sky
Tirus ran to astronomers in hurry
Hearing the news, Kantala informed king immediately.
The King was happy and ordered to beat drums.
Countrymen of Fikelos gathered around the palace to know
what was happening. King told them that Jiverus, the cat, was responding to
some strange happening in sky. He ordered people to look up the sky when
stars appeared.
Everybody in the country of Fikeros looked up the starlit sky that night.
They found a magnificently shining small star beside a big star called
Tares.
Several years later, Kantala and other astronomers found out the relation of
the newly found star and famine.
No big famines ever occurred afterwards.
Swaji, a little girl who could see the farthest star.
This is a story of an incident in ancient India.
Old holy man was walking in a town called Daya.
He felt more calmness and peace in evening rather than in morning.
From his tied hair string, Ganges water was flowing out , not drying up on the way
and fell down to ground.
He saw a dumb girl sitting on a piece of dirty cloth in roadside.
Her name was Swaji.
He looked into her pure set of eyes and went away.
Swaji filled with some strange feeling followed him.
Coming out of the town, the holy man passed the rocky mountain and
went into a dark thick forest.
Quiet morning visited as usual the deep forest where he lived.
He went into a small river inside the forest and bathed there like birds
in morning brightness. He chanted a prayer as he came back
to his hut.
Sarvo Budha Jadha Yadha,
Sarvo Bokti, Pradha Yeni,
Tun Stuta, Stuta, Yeh Ikawa,
Babunt Bha, Mokta Yeni,
Swarga Bha, Balgadhi,
Devi, Narayoni, Sanstuteh,
Swarga Bha, Balgadhi,
Devi, Narayoni, Mastuteh
Then he collected dry leaves, started a fire and warmed himself.
White cow appeared from somewhere and sat beside him quietly.
Swaji also appeared. Holy man looked at the pure eyes of Swaji
She laughed timidly. Swaji asked him with her gesture why he
lived in a dangerous forest.
She went near holy man, broke the branch of a tree and drew the footprint of tiger. She told him she could not sleep due to fear last night. White cow also listened. Not only cow but birds and trees trembling with morning wind
listened too.
He said everything is in forest. Necessary things for man’s life are available
in forest. All the items and hearts are obtainable there. That is why a man who is searching a truth lives in forest. He put his hand on the forehead of white cow.
Then Swaji became fond of visiting this deep forest. That is not the whole story. Birds and animals of the forest started liking her.
Holy man felt he now understood the secret of those pure set of eyes
Several winters passed and Swaji was now reading the books of holy man.
One night, Swaji was reading a book with a small lamp as usual.
When she wanted to go out to give rest for her eyes, holy man asked
where she was going and she replied in gesture she was going to see
stars to give rest to her eyes.
Holy man kept silence for some time. The sound of birds could be heard.
Holy man pointed the sky saying you could see stars from here only. Swaji
was fond of holy man who spoke this way.
The curled hair of holy man with a faint light oozing made him look divine. But Swaji could not see any stars. She could only see the dirty sooty roof. Holy man was still watching stars.
Slowly Swaji started being able to see like the holy man.
By thinking about stars which could be around there, stars could be seen
a little by little. Holy man asked her to observe stars of further away.
Swaji tried and the light appeared in her eyes which became brighter.
Holy man told her “You can see the stars which have not been seen by
anybody. They say the person who saw those stars can float among stars.
You can see the star in the farthest place.”
It did not take much time for Swaji to see the farthest star.
Her eyes were filled with bright light and deep light flashed inside her eyes.
Swaji is said that she stayed among stars even when she was playing with
deers and birds lived in the forest.
Sonda Pada, A tree which danced with star.
A slow movement was happening in the century of darkness when cosmos
had not even stars. The movement was gradually making a figure
which appeared as a tree of Sonda Pada.
Cosmos welcomed the century of light and stars gradually started to appear.
Stars having many colors like rainbow gave lights to darkness and
the tree of Sonda Pada started dancing. After sometime seeds fell like raindrops
and they rooted on the land of stars.
The star, Peekla was giving out green color light.
So many clouds came up from the seeds which fell into the crack.
From those clouds, wind was born and was called Goushila.
Eventually, plenty rain came out from clouds and wind and fell on the earth.
The crack became sea and grass came from the rocky earth.
Then forest of Gogula came.
From the forest Gogula, silver colored birds were born. And the birds were always singing.
Gogula Peekla,
Gogula Peekla
Sheekla Goushila
The bird was always singing but did not know how to dance.
One day, wind Goshila had been blowing for many days, the bird finally was
blown away and was slammed strongly.
The beautiful silvery wings were wretched and unrecognizable.
Somehow the injured bird hid in the dark hole of a tree and was surprised
to see the strange scene. There was nothing which was not dancing
within the massive wind of Goshila.
Even little green grass also knows how to dance.
thinking this way, the weary bird fell into a deep sleep.
In his dream, the bird was flying toward the tree of Sonda pada.
The bird had a strange dream. The tree Sonda Pada was dancing
with the shining star.
The bird whispered in his dream, I, too, want to dance.
Perch on my tree and you will dance.
The voice came from the stars.
The bird perched on the tree and found he became
Sonda Pada
When the wind, Goshila, went away, bright morning visited again in the forest,
Bathing in a bright light in morning, the silver bird who turned to be Sonda Pada in a forest of Gogula sang and danced happily.
Gogula Peekla,
Gogula Peekla,
Sheekla Goushila,
We are born from tree dancing with stars
Dancing we are.
We are born from the forest of Gogula
Dancing we are.
Cosmos is a tree dancing with Stars.
Cosmos is a forest dancing with stars.
Gogula Sheekla
Gogula Sheekla
Peekla Peekla
