By HH Mohrmen
The history of Jaintia Hills is different from those of other chieftainships within the grand HynniewTrep tribe and it begins right from the stories of the origin of the kingdoms. The Jaintia kingdom is also one of the few Khasi- Pnar kingdoms the dominion of which extended to the plains. Hence these kingdoms included plains people and non-tribals too as their subjects. The boundary of the Jaintia Kingdom extended from the rivers Gobha-Sonapur in the north up to the river Surma in the south. To the east lay the river Kupli and to the west the Brahmaputra (Bhattacharjee, J.B. Brahmanical myth, royal legalisation and the Jaintia state formation Journal of Social Science and Humanities NEHU). Not only did the territories extend to the plains but they also shifted the seat of the kingdom to Jaintiapur. Perhaps this is one of the few tribal royal who was mentioned extensively in the Ahom chronicles, which issued its own coins and a ruled over a kingdom which was also open to cultures other than their own. Prof S.K. Bhuyan collected all the information about the Jaintia kingdom and included that in the Ahom chronicles. He published the same in a separate book called the Jayantia Buranji.
It is from the Buranji and other sources that information about the Jaintia kingdom can be extracted, but very unfortunately the same is yet to be translated into English. The Jaintiapur kings are as much the kings of the plains as that of the highlanders or the tribals. This is obvious from the very fact that there are at least two versions of the story of the origin of the Jaintia kingdom. The version according to the Jayantia Buranji, was that king Jayanta Ray had no issue to succeed him. He prayed to the presiding goddess of the state to bless him with a son. The story has it that the goddess visited him in his sleep and in his dreams promised that she would give him a daughter instead. Later a daughter was born to him and the baby was named Jayanti.
Jayanti was later married to Landabhur the son of a royal priest and when Jayanta Ray become old he handed the kingdom over to Jayanti. Jayanti ascended the throne and took the name of Ranee Singh. In a sad turn of events, Ranee Singh suspected that her husband had committed some indecency and he was expelled and banished from the Kingdom. In his walk in the wilderness Landabhur was given shelter by the Garo king who lived in a place called Suhtnga. Landabhur was adopted by the Chief of the region in the hills and on the demise of his adopted father, he succeeded the throne.
Meanwhile Ranee Singh regretted at the way she treated her husband and prayed to the goddess to relieve her from her pain. The goddess appeared in her dream and promised that a female child would be born of her shadow and the child was to be thrown into the water to be devoured by a fish and would ultimately become the wife of Landabhur. The goddess also said that the child would be named at Mutchorduree.
As prophesised in the dream a child was duly born, thrown into the water and devoured by a fish which swam upstream to the hills and was caught by Landabhur. The story has it that the fish turned into a beautiful lass and during the day in his absence, swept his house clean which baffled him. One day Landabhur caught the woman which turned from a fish into a human and married her. This narrative says that Landabhur son from Mutchordee whose name is Bur Gohain/Bor Kuhain became the first king of the Jaintia kingdom. That was how the Kingdom was started according to the narrative of the plain subjects of the kingdom. This is also one of the narratives recorded in the Jayantia Buraji as found in Catherine Shadap-Sen’s book.
The tribal in the hills too have their own stories of the origin of the Jaintia kingdom which started from Sutnga and was earlier known as ‘Ka Hima Sutnga and extended its kingdom to the plains and shifted the capital of the kingdom to Jaintiapur. The story amongst the Pnar and the War Jaintias was u Lo Ryndi Tariang from Thangbuli area who lived in the Sutnga area caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi. He kept the fish in a basket over the fire place and totally forgot about it until one day he found that when he returned home from work his house was cleaned and somebody had even cooked him his meal. He later found that the fish he caught from the river was in indeed a human and the two married and their offspring became the first king of the Sutnga kingdom.
It is interesting to note that though the two stories about the kingdom originated from two different cultures but surprisingly, the elements of the stories inter-mingled and even converged at different points. If the stories of the origin of the kingdom are taken into consideration it is obvious that the two cultures both that of the plains and the hills people influenced each other.
Perhaps it is not wrong to say that the Jaintia kingdom was able to reach its glory because of its openness to other cultures. The Jaintia kings not only entered into matrimonial alliances with royal families of the neighbouring countries but have even adopted and practiced certain aspects of Hinduism in their court. Syed Murtaza Ali suggested that it was the daughter of a Koch king who introduced Hindu customs of worship in the royal family which continued till the fall of the kingdom.
Jaintiapur was also one of the major markets which catered to both the hills and the plains subjects of the kingdom and hence it was also a meeting place where ideas and cultures syncretised. The Pnar and the War still share many stories which are related with the market. The Pnar’s penchant for brass utensils which are being used till today in some religious ceremonies is also borrowed from the plains culture. The turban maybe a universal head gear but the ‘ïuslieñ’ dhoti is another item borrowed from the plains culture.
Jaintia is also by tradition home to other ethnic groups. It welcomes the five clans of Biates/Beates collective known as ‘namrnga kea dewan’, who originally lived in the Saipung area. It also welcomes the Hadem which includes the Vaichei, the Vaiphei and the Motsun who live in the Saitsama village. In fact this could be one interesting case study where intermarriage happens between two tribes following different family systems – a matrilineal and patrilineal system. Then there is the Hmar in Khaddum village and all these groups are from the Tibeto-Burman linguistic groups whereas the Khasi Pnar and the War are from Austro Asiatic, Mon Khmer language group.
The Jaintia kings are different from other tribal kings because others are mere tribal chiefs and did not attain the status of a king who ruled over a subject comprising of different races. The story of the Jaintias is the story of a society which is open to all cultures even while maintaining their tribal roots. It is a story of enterprising people who have traded with outsiders since time immemorial.
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