Manindranath Marak 'The legend says, a mosquito was as big as a deer and the size of a frog was as big as the size of a door when the Garos first came here. So, A'chik Mande means people who anchored themselves in soil. They fought many battles; they won, they lost. They finally came here an
d took an oath not to migrate again...The Garos participated in the liberation of Bangladesh.'
[Manindranat
h Marak, August 1998.]
'It was on account of their oath by biting a lump of earth that they called themselves as "A'chik or A'ako chike mikchetgiparang" or "A'chikrang" or the people who took oath by biting a lump of soil with their teeth.'
[Mihir N. Sangma, Unpublished Documents on Garo Affairs, p.5.]
'The origin of the name "Garo" has been the subject of some conjecture. In the southern portion of the hill there exists a division of the tribe who call themselves Gara or Ganching. These people are not far removed from the Mymensingh district, from which direction the Garos were first approached by Europeans or Bengalis. It is therefore not unlikely that this division of the tribe first received their appellation of Gara, that the name was extended to all the inhabitant of the hills, and that in time it became corrupted from "Gara" to "Garo."'
[Major A. Playfair, I.A., The Garos, p.7.]
