By HH Mohrmen
The plains of Bangladesh, nestled at the foothills of Meghalaya, share a long and intricate history with the Pnar people of the region. Despite belonging to different ethnic groups—those living in the hills and those in the plains often crossed paths at various points in history. At one time, these two regions, the hills and the plains, were united under a single regime known as the Jayantia Kingdom. This unique kingdom, which has its origins in the hills, extended its territory down to the Surma River (Dutta SK, July 10, 1937, Jaintia Buranji, Introduction pp-v).
The Jaintia Kingdom was formed through the amalgamation of two kingdoms: the Jayanti Kingdom, believed to be an ancient realm in the plains, and the Sutnga Kingdom, which had its origins in the hills. The Jayanti Kingdom is mentioned in Pauranik literature, known for the shrine of Jayanti Devi, and is believed to have been a female-ruled kingdom referenced in the Mahabharata —against which Arjuna is said to have fought (Ibid). However, no historical records exist regarding the Sutnga Kingdom, leaving much of its history to the realm of legend and oral tradition.
In the Jaintia Buranji, it is recounted that the last ruler of the Jayanti Kingdom was a female queen who banished her husband. With the help of her favoured deity, she turned her shadow into a woman, who then transformed into a fish and swam upstream to where her exiled husband, Landhabar, lived. Landhabar caught the fish from a nearby river, and it later transformed back into a woman, whom he then married.
An intriguing aspect of this history is that both the hill kingdom of Sutnga and the plains kingdom of Jayanti share similar origin stories. The story of the Jaintia Kingdom is well-documented in the Jaintia Buranji, which recounts the tale of an ancient female-ruled kingdom mentioned in scriptures. The Buranji contains multiple versions of the kingdom’s origin story, while the Pnar people of the hills share a similar story in oral form. This version, with its tribal nuances, is connected to many natural phenomena that still exist today. For instance, the Waikhyrwi River, from which Lo or Lot Ryndi caught the legendary fish, still flows today, as does the Thlumuwi River, where the woman is said to have disappeared. These are just a few examples that illustrate the enduring connection between the region’s geography and its cultural history.
According to the Jaintia Buranji, the Jaintia Kingdom, with its capital at Jayantiapur, was an ancient realm ruled by a series of Brahmin kings, starting with Kedareswar Rai, followed by Dhaneswar Rai, Kandarpa Rai, Manik Rai, and finally Jayanta Rai. Unfortunately, Jayanta Rai had no sons, so the Goddess Gauri blessed him with a daughter instead, whom he named Jayanti. Jayanti was then married to Landhabar, the son of Chandabar, the royal priest. Landhabar was an accomplished scholar, endowed with all the good qualities, and he was called Landhabar because he had no siblings.
The marriage between Jayanti and Landhabar was solemnized, and Jayanti served her husband faithfully. Subsequently, a ceremony was held to enthrone Jayanti, and she was bestowed with the title of Rani Singha. However, Landhabar’s fate took a tragic turn when he was cursed by the Goddess for attempting to embrace her. As a result, all his knowledge of the scriptures was taken away, and he was condemned to live an ignominious life as a “mlechha”—a term used in ancient India to describe non-Aryan, non-Hindu tribes who were considered sinful. Landhabar, now stripped of his scholarly abilities, became undisciplined, leading an irreligious and vagabond life. (Genesis of the Jaintia, The Jaintia Buranji pp. 26).
Jayanti Devi eventually chased Landhabar away after he tried to force himself on her during her menstruation. He then wandered aimlessly, living the life of a vagabond until he arrived at the home of a Garo man named Suttanga. (SK Dutta, in the Introduction to the Jaintia Buranji, mentioned that the name Garo was used by the inhabitants of Kamrup when referring to their Khasi neighbors to the south (ibid pp. vi). This aligns with the oral narrative that claims the Pnar’s hill kingdom was earlier known as the Sutnga Kingdom. However, there is no evidence that the Garos ever lived in the Sutnga area, so it is possible that the Buranji mistakenly recorded the Pnar as Garos. The chronicle clearly mentions Suttanga as the name of the place where Landhabar lived with his adopted family. Coincidentally, the Buranji also mentions a stream near Suttanga with the same name, and in the oral narrative, Lo Ryndi caught the fish known as ‘Ka Li Dakha’ from Wah Waikhyrwi, a river near Sutnga.
Landhabar met the elderly couple and introduced himself by saying, “I am Landhabar, I have no one.” The couple, who lived alone, invited him to stay and work for them, promising to treat him as their own son. He was later known as the son of the Suttanga, and there is a stream near where they lived that is also known as Suttanga. Among the Pnar, there is a tradition called ‘chong bro,’ wherein a person stays and works for a family and, after a long time, is accepted as a member of that family. ‘Chong bro’ is the tradition that needs further discussion and the Suttanga couple may have taken Landhabar as a ‘u chong bro’ in their family. Landhabar cared for the couple until they died, performed their last rites, and inherited their property. The villagers began to refer to him as Landhabar, the Suttanga Garo.
Meanwhile, Jayanti Devi was sorrowful for driving Landhabar away. She lamented her failure to fulfil her duty to her husband and prayed to the Goddess Mahamaya Bhagabati, requesting her help in saving her honour. The Goddess appeared in her dreams and promised to help her fulfill her duty by sending a mirror image of herself to Landhabar, who would serve him as his wife. The Goddess instructed that during her menstruation, an image of Jayanti, in the form of a girl, would emerge from her body and enter the water. A “Barali fish,” a kind of catfish, would devour this girl, and then Landhabar would capture the fish in his “Khoka,” an elongated conical fish trap made of bamboo, which he would set up in the Suttanga stream.
The girl, who would be Jayanti’s representation, would be born from the womb of the fish, and her name would be Matchyodari. She would be a faithful wife to Landhabar, and they would have a son. Jayanti would return to the Goddess only after she handed over the reins of the kingdom to her son. As foretold, during her menstruation, Jayanti went to bathe in the river, where her image emerged and was devoured by the fish, which then swam upstream and returned to the kingdom.
Landhabar Suttanga set his Khoka in the stream to catch a fish. It began to rain heavily, and the Barali fish that had swallowed Jayanti’s image got trapped in the Khoka. In the oral narrative, it is mentioned that Landhabar caught her while fishing. He brought the fish home and hung it up before going to the field. On his way, another Garo named Bhobola asked him how he planned to eat such a big fish alone. Landhabar replied that he would let the fish rot and then fry one maggot each day to eat. To their surprise, when they returned home from the field, they found that food had been prepared for them. Landhabar then exclaimed, “I am Landhabar, I have no one, but who felt sorry for me and came to help me?” He surmised that it must be the sylvan god, or the sylvan god (ryngkew ki basa), who had come to help him. He consumed his food and drank his wine. The next day, the same thing happened. He ate his meal and kept quiet, then thought to himself, “If the fish does not decay while hanging, I should cut it into pieces.” As he raised his machete to cut the fish, it broke into two pieces.
He then hung the fish and pretended to leave for the field. As soon as he saw Matchyodari emerging from the fish and cleaning the floor, he grabbed her and asked who she was. She replied, “Please keep quiet. I have come only for your happiness. Since we both have no one, let us live together. You no longer need to go to the field. I will provide everything we need. Do not ask any questions, just keep quiet.” They both lived happily together.
They became successful and prospered in their lives, and eventually, a son was born to the family. Initially, Landhabar ruled over five or six villages, but as his influence grew, more villages accepted him as their chief, including those who initially opposed him. In the Pnar narrative that is how the kingdom started. According to the Buranji, he then marched to Sultanpur and took the title of Landha Sultan and another version says that Jayanti Devi adopted Landhabar son’s and he later became the ruler of the Jayantia kingdom.