The Donyi-Polo Cosmos: Sun and Moon Mythology in Mising Folktales

Abstract

The symbols of the Sun and Moon form the central axis of Mising cosmology, ethics, and ritual life in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Donyi (the Sun) and Polo (the Moon) are imagined as parents, witnesses, and ancestral lawgivers whose gaze binds human conduct to a larger moral and ecological order. This article analyses five narratives— “Origin of Ali a Ye Ligang,” “Abotani and Abotaro,” “The Dark Spot on the Moon,” “Lightning and Thunder,” and “The Rite of Calling a Soul Back”—drawn from an authoritative corpus of Mising folktales. Through close reading, it shows how these stories encode ideas of cosmological origin, divine ancestry, oath-taking, taboo, shame, reciprocity with nonhuman beings, and environmental responsibility. Rather than treating Mising solar–lunar beliefs as a fragmentary “tribal religion” or primitive astronomy, the study argues that the Donyi Polo complex functions as an Indigenous moral philosophy and knowledge archive. Solar–lunar mythology emerges as a living intellectual tradition that continues to shape cultural memory, ecological ethics, and contemporary Mising identity