By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist
The oldest Indian mythology of rice can be found among the Bonda tribal people, who live in Odisha, who are linked to the Munda and Austroasiatic communities who entered India from the Southeast, and brought rice growing technology with them over 4,000 years ago. The Bonda say that in ancient times, rice could fly and could eat humans. But they lost a memory game — humans could remember all names of rice, rice could not remember all names of humans. And so, rice became the food of humans. The great hero of the Bonda people, Bhimay, cut the wings of rice, brought them to Earth, and consumed them. This probably is one of the oldest myths dealing with rice cultivation.
