The Myth of Hrili Dil

          Once upon a time there lived a girl named Hrili who had a cruel stepmother and had to lead a life of domestic tortures and sufferings. One day, the father took Hrili’s younger sister deep into forest and cold bloodily murdered her. Hrili cried for many days looking for her younger sister and eventually discovered the fact about the death of her younger sister and was inconsolably weeping alone in a green plantation field. The little girl, drained, exhausted and unable to produce any sound fainted besides her sister’s body. Magically as did in all fairy tales, a good spirit known as Zingngawrtenu (goddess of dawn) appeared and found Hrili in a miserable condition. She then asked the little girl the cause of her sufferings and revealed to her the magical healing power of a particular tree. The good spirit then asked the little girl to plucked the leaves of the tree and bring her younger sister back to the mortal world. In spur of a moment, Hrili awakened her younger sister who had been lying as a corpse for days. As a matter of fact, the younger sister had become deadly thirsty. In order to quench the thirst of her younger sister, Hrili had nothing to do but asked the spirit’s favour for one last time, ‘Oh you most beautiful spirit of good-will the Goddess of Dawn, grant me the power to transform myself into a lake so that my little sister could drink from it’. In no time Hrili could turn herself into a small pool of water with the help of a magical spell from Zingngawrtenu. However, the magical spell could not retrieved Hrili back to her human form once she transformed herself into a lake. Later, Hrili was compelled to change herself into a white mithun, and wandered around in search of shelter where she could safely rest. While she was wandering around from place to place looking for a safe haven, her urine formed many small lakes wherever she visited. She eventually decided to stay at Sanzawl village not far from the river, Rȗn. But the spirit of the river threatened to suck her dry if she happened to settle there. Thus, having crossed Champhai Valley, she finally settled in the present location in the form that she cherished most – that of a lake. From then on the lake stands till date with many fictitious and non-fictitious facts embedded in it that relates to many tribesmen socio-cultural cult.