Khasi Heritage: The Quest for Harmonious Rhythm

Life on earth is being interpreted in the form of a folktale, where a couple are wandering in the wilderness traversing through the celestial and temporal spheres. The man was carrying a pestle and mortar and the woman was carrying a pouch or basket.  During the voyage in the celestial sphere, the couple had fruit and groundnuts and kept all the seeds in the pouch.
All the way before they arrived at the earth, the man was clearing the weeds and the woman plucked the berries and flowers. All the parasites fell into the earth and scattered all around the barren and fertile land in the form of weeds, creepers, fungus and all sorts of deterrent vegetation. While the sweet edible berries and beautiful aromatic flowers were safe inside the pouch.
The couple discarded the parasites and kept the edible berries along with the blooming flowers inside the basket. After a tedious journey, they were exhausted and decided to rest on one of the touchstones.The man was pounding grains of corn, while the woman poured water on the mortar, as both were famished and thought of eating their midday meal. However, they were too tired and fell asleep, and soon after the sun was about to set. After they doze to sleep, the touchstone ignites fire and burns the surrounding area, leaving the couples and their articles intact. Meanwhile, various creatures came out of the basket and crawled all over the place, while the fire was already doused.
The couple were in fantasy and dreamt of a moonlit night where all sorts of maggots, worms, reptiles, insects, aquatics, avians, amphibians and mammals came out of the basket. By the time they woke up at twilight, they were amazed to discover the surrounding environment was scorching, while they were sitting on a verdant patch of grassland leaning on a megalith. They realised that they were supposed to reach home before nightfall and immediately got up to resume their journey.
When the man tried to pick up the pestle and mortar, it was stuck to the ground and the same happened with the basket of the lady. Both of them walked away, leaving their articles behind, and both the articles merged with the touchstone. A heavenly voice echoed in their ears that they should not look back, lest they will be converted into stone. Hence, both of them listened to the voice and went ahead till they reached the shore of the river.
All the creatures that came out of the basket moved in the direction of the route wherever the couple ventured. The fish were swimming in the river, the snakes were crawling, the frogs were leaping on the shore,  the flights of birds were chirping in the sky and the animals were galloping with joy in and around their trail. All the creatures were escorting the couple on their way home in merriment.
The mobility of all the creatures was dictated by nature, but it was not perfect. The animals moved with their limbs but tumbled frequently, the birds flapped their wings but often fell to the ground, the snakes crawled but almost broke their spine, the fish swam but missed the rhythm of the water current, the frogs and toads leapt but landed on precipitous boulders and caverns, the crawling and flying insects had their share of physical impairment.
Nevertheless, Mother-earth was happy that the static plants that have covered nature are in harmony with the animated creatures. They were interdependent on each other for survival and sustenance, but some creatures were vulnerable to plants and plants were endangered by rampant marauding creatures.
After several seasons, mother-earth was disheartened that her offspring were not in harmonious rhythm with each other. Therefore, Mother-earth once again pleads before the Creator to send some beings who are capable of taking charge of the entire creations for proper care and  order. The Creator, in the binary existence of Meihukum and Thawkur, assigned the sixteen huts sixteen nests or Khathynriew-trep Khathynriew-skum to supervise the function of creations on earth as per the resolution of the divine assembly.
The Sixteen huts, Sixteen nests communicate between heaven and earth through the golden vines or Jingkieng Ksiar of the celestial umbilical mount or Sohpetbneng. The Sixteen huts Sixteen nests are the immortal spiritual beings entrusted with the care and custody of the entire creations on earth, and they performed their duties diligently until the seven of them went astray.
The Seven huts Seven nests or Hynñiew-trep Hynñiew-skum were so engrossed in the task of management of the creations on earth that they overlooked the divine decree and fell into the temptation of the mammon serpent demon. At that precise moment, the divine umbilical link was detached between heaven and earth, leaving the nine spiritual beings to remain in heaven and the seven temporal beings were destined to inhabit the earth as mortal tangible beings.
It is interesting to note that seven spiritual beings were privileged creations of tangible mortals as compared to the other creatures who germinated and evolved from the earth. Therefore, the Seven huts Seven nests or Hynñiew-trep Hynñiew-skum are the human race inhabiting the earth. In the Khasi worldview, the Khasi race is one of the communities among the human race or Hynñiew-trep Hynñiew-skum. Essentially, the entire human race along with all the natural creations on earth are the properties of Mother Earth.
Consequently, human civilisation through the ages impressed upon the human mind that Mother-earth in the form of soil or land is a resourceful property to be exploited by human society. This reversal of notions about the earth has gone to the extent that soil or land becomes a resourceful property for economic benefit and commercial usage by human society.
In the Khasi context, every human body, along with all the creations in the world, belongs to the earth – the Mother Earth and not vice-versa. The physical body of every creation on earth is disposed of through various means of artificial disposition and natural decomposition methods to integrate again with Mother Earth.