By HH Mohrmen
Of-late debates on the identity of the Jañtias vis a vis the Khasis has been a topic of hot debate on social media and outside it. That the two communities the Khasi and the Jañtia belong to the same tribe, is not a matter of dispute, but the subject of disagreement is the place of the Khasi and the Pnar or the Jañtia in the entire scheme of things. There are divergent views that the Khasi and the Pnar are different communities within the grand Hynñew Trep tribe, yet there is another view which thinks that Pnar, the War, the Bhoi, the Khynriam et al belongs to the same tribe known as the Khasi.
The word Jañtia, is an exogenous name, that generally pertains to the geographic area, but is also used to denote the different tribes like the Pnar and the War, which is a sub-tribe of the Hynniew Trep. The Pnar live on the plateaus and those who live on the slopes along the border with Bangladesh call themselves War Jañtia, which is also their preferred name. The Pnar and the War dialect belong to the Austro-Asiatic language family and it is the group to which the Khasi language also belongs. (Mohrmen H.H. Cultural History of Jañtia in story stones and traditions). From the language point of view, the Pnar the War, and the Khynriam speak the language which belongs to the same language group.
Jañtias are sometimes referred to as Synteng by outsiders, which could be the corruption of the word Jañtia, zynteñ, then Synteng. Or it may be related to the word Sutnga, the place from which the Jañtia kings came. In due course of time, it was then changed to ‘suteng’ and ultimately ‘synteng’. The origin of the word Synteng could also be from Sutnga or Suteng but the Pnar abhor the word Synteng and they consider it to be derogatory. The term Jañtia is also used when referring to all the tribes that live in the area which include the non-Hynñew Trep group, like the Biates, Hmar, and the Hadem of Saitsama.
The autochthon of Jañtia hills preferred to call themselves ‘ki Pnar’ and those who live on the slopes as ‘War Jañtia.’ The two names are endogenous names for the two groups of people. There are also two narratives about the origin of the word Pnar. The Pnar live on the plateau, u Miat Kyndiah thought that the origin of the word Pnar derives from the hyphenated term, ‘Pyn-ar’ which means both. This could reflect the principle that in this community, equal respect is given to the mother and father. There is another theory of the origin of the word Pnar and that it is from ‘Paka-nar’ which means genuine iron. This theory was proposed by C.A. Suchiang an author and a teacher. The Khasi Pnar traditionally smelted iron and categorized it into two types: ‘sbat’ and ‘tasam’. ‘Sbat’ is genuine or iron of superior quality and ‘tasam’ is iron of inferior quality. They have a story about iron smelting. When the Pnar went to sell their iron or iron products to the plains people, they referred to their product as ‘paka-nar’ iron of superior quality to differentiate their product from iron smelted by other communities. The plains people took this to mean, ‘we are Panar’, till today the plains people would call them ‘Panar’ and hence they were called Pnar. The Pnar, War, and Khasi are the same people, sharing the same creation story. They have the same culture, especially their social structure, upholding kinship through clans, and following a matrilineal system. They are all part of the HynñewTrep or the seven huts. (Mohrmen H.H. Cultural History of Jañtia in story stones and Traditions)
It may be mentioned that even the term Khasi is an exogenous name that others, which means our immediate neighbours, gave us. In the Jayantia Buranji, the first chapter deals with the Genesis of the Jayantias and it narrates a short story of how the Jayantia came to be known as Khasi. This is also a story that tells about the birth of King Jayanta. It says that since the days of Yudhishthir, Jayantipur was ruled by a succession of Brahmin kings. The story has it that once when King Yudhisthir decided to perform the Rajashuya Yagya a royal sacrifice, King Indrasen refused to appear before Bhim. An infuriated Bhim spared Indrasen’s life because he was a Brahmin, but he was dragged on his bottom till his testicles ruptured. It is said that since then the Jayantia kings came to be known as Khasis and the place where the incident took place is till today known as Khasipoor. (Bhuyan SK, Edited, The Jayantia Buranji)
The Buranji also informs that Jayantia is also a name of an ancient Brahmin kingdom on the foothills which has its own story of origin. The Jayantia Buranji recorded three narratives of how the Jayantia kingdom came into being and all three versions of the story have almost the same story lines. It is also interesting to note that the traditional Pnar War narrative of the genesis of the Jayantia king also has the same storyline. It must be noted that the Jayantia kingdom which is believed to be an ancient kingdom pre-existed the Sutnga kingdom.
The interesting point to note here is that the story of the kingdom in the plains also has a connection with the people in the hill regions and this was before the beginning of the Sutnga kingdom that figures in the history only from 1500 AD onwards. If as the Jayantia buranji has recorded the Jayantia kingdom is an ancient kingdom then the hills region of what we know now as Jaintia has been inhabited since ancient times. Landabhar the expelled husband of Queen Jayanti Devi wandered and reached the Sutnga area where he was adopted by the Tribal Garo chief. The question is how can there be a Garo chief in the areas where there is no evidence of Garo people living in the area. The tribes who live in the area are the Biate/Beate and they also share many folktales which link the Beate community with the dominant Pnar tribe.
S.K. Dutta Honorary Assistant Director of Historical and Antiquarian Studies for the Brahmaputra valley in his introduction to the Jayantia Buranji, said that the inhabitants of Kamrup area till recently still use the term Garo in speaking to their Khasi neighbours. The Assamese were not able to differentiate one tribe from another and hence used to even call their Khasi neighbours to the south as Garo. The non-Hynñew Trep people who lived in the region till today are the Biate/Beate which the Pnar call as Hadem. Whether the Garo chief mentioned in the Jayantia Buraji is a Biate/Beate is the question that needs to be dealt with? The folk story about the beginning of the Jayantia kingdom also mentioned the Hadem chief who sold the Pnar princess to the person who was from Jowai.
Sutnga is known to be occupied by the Pnar and there is no evidence of Garo people living in this region. In the Jayantia Buranji the Jayantia king was started by Brahmanical rules Jayanti Rai and since he does not have a male child to succeed him, hence Jayanti Devi succeeded her father. Jayanti Devi married Landabhar and was dispelled from the kingdom because of his misbehaviour. Jayanti Devi later regretted dispelling Landabhar and prayed to her favorite deity to help her
The deity took Jayanti Devi’s shadow and sent a fish to swim upstream till it was caught by Landabhar who forgot to cook the fish and only later realized that it was not an ordinary fish but a human in disguise of a fish. She told him that she was sent by divine intervention to help him start a new dynasty.
Landabhar was able to unite and win over the tribal chieftains around and started a new tribal kingdom. The kingdom was known as Ka Hima Sutnga and it became so powerful that the territory of the kingdom extended to the plains. In all likelihood, the name was given to him by the plains people to the chieftain who conquered their territories. One of the kingdom’s most powerful kings is known as Prabhat Rai, meaning the Lord of the hills. He was not only able to unite the entire hill area under his leadership but he also defeated some non-tribal kingdoms on the foothills.
The Sutnga regime was able to annex the Jayantia kingdom to its fold and the kingdom became very powerful till through an act of treachery it was annexed to the British kingdom. The outcome of that was the disintegration of the kingdom with the hills portion keeping the name Jayantia, Jaintia, or Jañtia.