By H H Mohrmen
An eminent Agro-ecologist from Mexico who visited Meghalaya few years back, while discussing about maize, reminded us that Mexicans have more than three thousand years relationship with the crop. One wishes that we can make a similar statement with regards to rice because our relationship with the crop is very rich and timeless too. This can be proven from the kind of relationship that people have with the crop which also attests to the deep connection they have with rice. This is also obvious from the way people use this crop and the variety of rice they have or rather they used to have in their possession.
The Khasi Pnar or the Pnar in particular have a profound relationship with rice and this is evident from the rich tradition that the people have with the crop. Rice has always been part and parcel of the rich cultural milieu of the Pnar people; in fact many traditions and ceremonies will be incomplete without rice. In my previous articles I have shared instances which demonstrate that rice is an important part of certain religious rituals in the traditional religion. Rice is used in rituals called ‘choh syiar’ which is part of the cremation ceremony before a rooster is sacrificed and it is also used while performing the egg divination, but rice is also an important part of many other rituals and ceremonies.
The write-up also mentions khawrneng/rneiñ which a person carries as a talisman especially before embarking on a trip for a safe journey, but rice is also equated with life itself. It is used as a representation of life; in fact rice is also used as a means to determine life. We often hear statements used such as ‘dang bun khaw’ when referring to a person who had just escaped a life and death situation. This literarily means that he is alive because he still has enough rice with him. And when a baby dies the common saying is that ‘he brought only little rice with him when he was born.’ Rice is therefore an important part of the society because it is not only used for eating purposes but it is also vital that it is also used to compare to life itself.
Unlike in English where we have just one name or we are using only one word to describe rice, in the Khasi Pnar language rice has three names or rather it is named differently at the different stages of the crop life. To be precise the crop has three names from the time it is harvested to the time of its consumption. There is a difference between rice which is in the seed form which still has husk and the rice when the husk is removed. Rice also is given a different name when it is cooked. When it is still in the seed form and still covered with husk, it is known as ‘kba’, when the husk is removed and it is ready to be cook it is called u khaw/khoo and the cooked rice is called ‘Ja.’
In Jaiñtia hills there are many types of ‘Ja’ too, like Jalieh, jakhoo, jasoo, jadoh/ji-ah, jachulia, jakhonboo, janam, jasiang, jasaktung, jatyngtap, jakre etc. Jasiang and Jasaktung has religious connection to it, Jasiang is cooked rice use as offering to the ancestors when people perform ‘ka siang ka pha’ ceremony and Jasaktung is rice cooked with beans which is specially cooked during the naming ceremony of babies in the Mukhap area. Jadoh is rice cooked in a chicken or pork broth and is the most popular main dish during weddings and picnics. Jakhonboo and janam are food one offers to the mother when a baby is born and janam is offered as a mark of respect and sympathy to the bereaved family that has just lost their dear ones.
Khaw/khoo is not only a staple food of the Khasi Pnar but people create different food items from rice. In fact most of our snacks are rice –based. Take for example pumaloi/tpu-langdong, putharo/tpuwasein etc. In Jaintia hills we have many more snacks made of rice like tpu-pynche, tpu-suwe/tpusuwa, tpu-ñiawhali, tpu-nai, tpu-myngkruid/twew-puri, tpu-rusi/twew-rusi, tpu ïala, tpu-doh, tpu-jngiar, tpu-pnah, tpu-tadong, tpu-pynche, shira/khooner, handoo. Then we also have japnah/jachulia. All these different snacks are made of different varieties of rice. This proves that the people have known rice for so long that they have also come up with different food items using the cereal. Rice is not only used to make snacks but it is also used for making rice beer or Ïndem which is traditional drink and also main item for performing some religious rites in the traditional religion.
The Pnars also have a story of how God gave rice to humans. I learned this story when I was a kid. The story has it that when people first settled on the earth, God sent a cow to tell the people that they need to cook only few grains of rice to feed themselves, or few grains of rice will be enough to feed the family. But the cow instead sent the crow to deliver the message to the people. The crow which was sent by the cow to deliver the message to the people, instead of instructing the people to cook few grains of rice only to feed themselves, told them to cook a prah (a small basket) full of rice to feed their hunger. This is the reason why people have to cook so much rice to feed their hunger otherwise few grains of rice will be sufficient to feed the family.
The story says that when the crow reported to God what had happened, God was angry with the crow. He took a pot which was blackened from being used to cook in the fire place and threw it at the bird. It is said that the crow got its shiny black colour from this incident when the black pot hit the poor bird. So this is the how the crow got its shiny dark colour according to the story.
Rice is therefore not just a food crop but it is an integral part of people’s life because apart from using it as a staple food, it is also an important element in the different religious rites and traditions and more importantly with the passing of time, they have been able to creatively use the crop. Some study suggested that people use to grow more than hundred varieties of rice in Jaiñtia hills, but sadly the Pnars are fast losing their different varieties of rice. Recently at the rice festival organised by SURE in collaboration with NESFAS and supported by REC, both the farmers from the region and the representative of the department of Agriculture in the area agreed that the district is losing the many varieties of rice that they use to have.
The farmers from this area of Laskein development could collect and bring for display only twenty two varieties of rice at the festival. They agreed that many varieties that they used to have when they young are now nowhere to be found. The call is to collect and conserve as much of the rice varieties native to this place as possible before it is too late because the varieties being endemic to the region could be the crops which can resist climate change.