Solung : a festival of the adis of NEFA

A look at the map of India shows that the great Himalayas stretch from the north west to the north east. This signifies the unity of the country. The Himalayas have from time immemorial excited the imagination of poets, philosophers and Saints. In the first cants of Kumarasambhaba, Kalidas the poet of poets says, 'The great Himalayas stretch to the north of India like Gods. It stretches from the west to the east like a rod meant for measuring the earth.'

The North East Frontier Agency is a part of the north-east Himalayas as the name signifies. This is perhaps the area of which little is known to the rest of the world and to modern India today. This was not a 'Hidden Land' to the people living in India long ago neither was it a land of Himalayan Barbery. It was definitely not the land described by Mulla Danesh of Herat and copiously quoted by some writers. It was the continuation of the Himalayas from west to east. It was the same familiar Himalayas of which the oldest book Rigveda sings "The Himalayas are immovable and have been standing for ages." The Atharbaveda says, "O Mother Earth your mountains your snowcovered mountains and your forest be useful to us". The Gita says, "I am like the Himalaya amongst stationary elements".