In a small village in Tripura, there lived a family of five. The family had a son and a daughter, and the son was older than the daughter. They were a happy family, living a peaceful life until one day something untoward happened.
One day, as usual, the brother and the sister were going together to work in the jum field. On their way to work, they had to cross a stream. To avoid her cloth from getting wet while crossing the stream, the girl pulled up her Rignai (cloth worn at the lower portion of the body). At that moment, her brother saw her beautiful legs and fell in love with her. Not crossing the stream, he stood still on the other bank of the stream. Noticing him, his sister asked, “Why are you standing there? Will you not go to work? Come quickly, it is going to be late.” He left her and went back home, without a word.
Since that day the brother was always lost in the thoughts of his sister. He stopped going to work and skipped his meals. He was always quiet and spent most of his time moving from one place to another.
The parents noticed the change in their son’s behavior. They were anxious to know what had happened to him. Despite being asked by the parents several times, the son didn’t tell them the reason for this change in him. One day his grandmother said to him, “What has happened to you? You have not been eating food properly and also not doing any work. Would you like to get married?” “Yes, I would like to marry someone” he replied. The grandmother told him the names of all unmarried young girls in the village but he didn’t want to marry any of them. Infuriated, the grandmother said, “There is no other girl left except your sister, so will you marry her?’ The grandson said, “Yes, I want to marry my sister.”
The old lady was shocked to know about the desire of her grandson and said, “It will be a sin and unsocial. It will not be accepted by society. This has never happened in our previous generations.” But he kept insisting on marrying his sister. He threatened his parents and the grandmother to take his own life if he didn’t get his sister as his wife. The parents made attempts to convince their son to change his mind. All the elderly people of the family discussed the issue, and having failed to convince the son, they decided to marry him off with his sister. However, the girl was kept in dark.
The family secretly began making the arrangements for the wedding. A new house was built for the couple. A large quantity of rice was arranged for the feast on the occasion of the marriage. Soon, the girl started suspecting that a marriage ceremony was likely to take place in the family. The girl asked her grandmother about the preparations being taken by the family, but the old lady pretended to know nothing about it.
One day the grandmother was keeping a watch over the paddy which was put to dry in the courtyard. While shooing away birds from the paddy, she said, “This paddy is for the marriage of my grandchildren. Why are you eating this? Go from here.” Since the old lady was blind, she didn’t see her granddaughter who was about to enter the house right at that time, and overheard her mentioning the marriage. Learning about the marriage of her and her elder brother, the girl was taken aback. She asked her grandmother about what she just said. The old lady denied saying anything. Unconvinced and hurt, the girl shouted, “I have heard everything you said, nana. How could you take such a weird decision? This is impossible!” The old lady couldn’t reply and the girl left the house crying in anger. At night, the girl had a dream. In her dream came an old person who said, “You poor girl, find a seedling of Chethuang tree and plant it. Worship it and you will be free from all your agonies.”
The next day the girl searched for the seedling of the Chethuang tree and found one. She planted, watered it, and started worshiping it. She sat near the growing tree and began singing, “Oh Chethuang tree, my family wants me to get married to my brother. You grow more and more.” The tree began to grow as she sang. Standing on top of the tree, she kept singing, “Oh dear tree, if anyone tries to cut you then grow five times longer.” A villager saw her standing on top of the huge Chethuang tree and he immediately went to her family to inform them.
All her family members and the villagers rushed to the place where she was. The villagers then started cutting the tree to bring her down. However, the tree kept on growing higher and higher. The parents pleaded with her to come down but the heartbroken girl didn’t listen to them at all. Her parents cried, “Oh our beloved daughter, please come down. We will not force you to marry your brother. We shall kill him.” Yet, she didn’t come down. They brought some blood to show her that they killed her brother. She cried, “I see and know that you brought blood by killing a black dog. You south wind, continue to blow on. I salute my father. You north wind, continue to blow on. I salute my mother.” Suddenly the wind started blowing and the top of the tree where the girl was standing reached as high as the sky. The girl said farewell to her parents and then disappeared into the clouds in the sky.
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