The Khasi-Pnars : The Khasis inhabit the eastern part of Meghalaya, in the Khasi and the Jaintia Hills.
Khasis residing in the Jaintia Hills are known as Jaintias. They are also known as Pnars.
The Khasis occupying the northern lowlands and foothills are generally called Bhois. Those who live in the southern tracts are termed Wars.
Again, among the Wars, those living in the Khasi Hills are called War-Khasi and those in the Jaintia Hills are called War-Pnars or War-Jaintias. In the Jaintia Hills we have khyrwangs, Labangs, Nangphylluts, Nangtungs in the north eastern part and in the east. In the Khasi Hills the Lyngngams live in the north-western part. But all of them claim to have descended from the Ki Hynniew Trep and are now known by the genetic name of Khasi-Pnars or simply ‘Khasis’. They have the same traditions, customs and usages with a little variation owing to geographical divisions.
A considerable portion of the Khasis, however, consists of descendants of the women of the plains absorbed in the Khasi society in the past.
Dress: - The traditional Khasi male dress is ‘Jymphong’ or a longish sleeveless coat without collar, fastened by frongs in front. Now, the Khasis have adopted the western dress. The older generation, however, is found to wear a turban or headgear. On ceremonial occasions, they appear in ‘jymphong’ and dhoti with an ornamental waist band.
The Khasi traditional female dress is rather elaborate with several pieces of cloth, giving the body a cylindrical shape. Modern Khasi ladies, however, wear a shorter skirt tucked up at the waist. The upper garment is tightly tied round the body. On ceremonial occasions, they wear a crown silver or gold on the head. A spike or peak is fixed to the back of the crown, corresponding to the feathers worn by the menfolks.
Food & Drinks: The staple food of the Khasis is rice. They also take fish and meat. They have practically no inhibitions about food, except dog’s meat. Previously, like many other tribal people, particularly Mongoloids, they were adverse to milk and milk products. But now-a-days, they take milk.
Like the other tribes in the North east, the Khasis also ferment rice-beer, and make spirit out of rice or millets by distillation. Use of rice-beer is a must on every ceremonial and religious occasions. To solemnize the occasion, beer is even poured on the ground.
Social Structure: The Khasis are matrilineal which means that their descendants is along the line of the mother. A boy or a girl born of a Khasi mother, belongs to the family of the mother. The property is inherited by the youngest daughter.
In the Khasi society, the woman looks after the home and hearth, the father finds the means to support the family, and the maternal uncle settles all social and religious matters. In the conservative Jaintia non-Christian families, however, the father only visits the family in the night and is not responsible for the maintenance of the family.
Inheritance: Like the Garos, the Khasis also follow a matrilineal system of inheritance. But while in the Garo society, the parents have an option to select any daughter as heiress or Nokna, in the Khasi society, it is only the youngest daughter or ‘Ka Khatduh’ who is eligible to inherit the ancestral property.
“If Ka Khatduh dies without any daughter surviving her, her next elder sister inherits the ancestral property, and after her, the youngest daughter of that sister. Failing all daughters and their female issues, the property goes back to the mother’s sister’s daughter, and so on.”
The Ka Khatduh’s property is actually the ancestral property and so if she wants to dispose of it, she must obtain consent approval of the uncles and brothers.
“A husband has no right to his wife’s ancestral property, but a Khasi male owns properties acquired by him in service or profession or business”. In respect of succession to self acquired property of a male, held only in his own value, the clan has the claim to it, amongst the Pnars.
Amongst the war-Khasis, however, property passes to all the children, male and female, in equal shares but amongst the War-Jaintia, only the female children gets the inheritance. However, “Ka Khatduh is given an additional share as she maintains the family religion,…..”
The Khasi society is devided into clans or ‘Kurs’ which are actually outgrown families. A family comprises grandmother, her daughter and the children of the daughter. Persons descended from a common ancestress form a clan or ‘Kur’, and ‘Kurs’ make up the tribe.
Marriages: Marriages within a clan is a taboo. Rings or betel-nut bags are exchanged between the bride and bridegroom is handed over to complete the union. The bridegroom is handed over to the bride’s maternal uncle in the mother’s house of the bride by the ‘Ksiang’ who is a go-between representing the bridegroom’s side. In the Christian families, however, marriages are puerly a civil contract.
Divorce: For infertility, adultery, even incompatibility, divorce can be obtained. The husband mixes his own five cowries to the five cowries handed over to him by his wife and returns all the ten cowries to the wife, who throws them on the ground to complete the divorce formalities.
Administration: The Khasis are ruled over by the ‘Syiems’ or Chiefs. Altogether there are fifteen ‘Syiems’ scioned by fifteen clans. The ‘Syiems’ are only titular heads. Actually the ‘myntries’ (ministers) decide everything. In important matters, the State ‘durbar’ or Executive Council, of which the ‘myntries’ are members, play the decisive role through democratic process under the ‘Syiem’, the presiding officer. The ‘Syiem’ is usually succeeded by his eldest sister’s son selected by an electoral college. If the members of the electoral college cannot agree, then the opinion is sought from all the adult members of the State. Thus ‘Syiemship’ is more of an elective nature than a hereditary one. Actually the Khasis are more democraic than the other hill tribes in the region.
Religion: The Khasis are now mostly Christians. But before that, they believed in a Supreme Being. The Creator – U Blei Nongthaw and under Him, they were several village deities of water and of mountain and also of other natural objects.
Besides worshipping the Gods, the Khasis revere their deceased ancestrors like the Hindus. The Tribal Mother is shown the highest reverence amongst the ancestors and ancestresses.
The Garos
The vibrant and virile ethnic people who reside in the Gaor Hills are known as the gaors. The word ‘Garo’ has been coined after the name of a small group of the Garos residing in the central part of the southern hills. Besides the Garo hills, there are Garos settled in the plains of Assam and Bangladesh.
The Garos call themselves Achik-mande. In the Garo language ‘Achik’ means Hills and ‘mande’ means Man. So, ‘Achik-mande’ means the ‘Hills people’.
Social structure: The Garo society is divided into three major clans or ‘Katchis’, e.g. Marak, Sangma and Momin. The’ Katchis’ are exogamous, marriage within the clan is forbidden and severely punishable. Some sub-clans have now branched off from the original clan and are developing into independent exogamous clans. Of these new Katchis, mentioned must be made of Awees living in the north-eastern hills, Abengs who form the most important group and live in the western side, and Agongs occupying Someshwari vally in the vicinity of Suji. The Agongs are the most educated and financially well-off amongst the Garos in Meghalaya.
Each of the Katchis or Clans are further sub-divided into number of lineages called ‘Machongs’. These ‘Machongs’ are the basic units in the Garo social structure, and are named usually after animals, rivers, caves etc. A garo belongs to his particular Machong as soon as he is born. The dominant Machong in a village selects its ‘Nok-ma’ or the headman. ‘Nok’ in Garo means house, while ‘ma’ stands for mother. Though the headman is a male, they call him ‘Nok-ma’. This shows the importance the Garos attaches to the woman. It is the woman who inherits property of a Garo ‘Machong’. After marriage, the so-in-law lives in his wife’s parents’s house and becomes the ‘Nokrom’ or representative of his father-in-law. Theoretically, the land belongs to the Nok-ma or the village headman, but actually he is the manager of his wife’s property. He cannot dispose of or mortgage the land of his wife without the concent of his wife’s Machong. Almost all the land, except narrow strips of plain land in th Garo Hills is A kings land. That is, the clan-land. The clan allots land to the Nokna which is managed by the Nok-ma.
Inheritance: Among the garos, only a daughter can inherit the property. In the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, inheritance is further restricted to the youngest daughter. Only the ‘Ka Khatduh’, that is, the youngest daughter can inherit the property of the deceased Khasi mother, irrespective of the wishes of the parents. But in the Garo society, selection of the heiress or Nokna depends on the wishes of the parents. The parents choose the best and the most obedient daughter, who is usually, thought not always, the youngest one. In case of any differences between spouses, the opinion of the wife prevails, because the Garo society is basically matrilineal. Generally the youngest daughter is selected ‘Nokna’ because usually she is more attached and affectionate and more dutiful and obedient to the parents. She is also more likely to survive the other daughters, because she is the youngest. However, incase the youngest daughter is not surviving or for any other reason, the parents can select any other daughter, but only ‘one’. Property is never shared, and is retained always within the ‘Machongs’.
Religion: Almost all the Garos are now Christians. Before that the religion of the Garos was a mixture of Pantheism and Hinduism. Actually the Hindu influence is discernible in all the ethnic people in the North east, in varying degrees.
Like the Hindus and the Buddhistn the Garos believed in incarnation of the spirit in Man. The form of incarnation depends on sin.
As in the Hindu religious system, the Garos believed in many Gods or Deities. Besides Tetara-Robunga (equivalent to Brahma in hindu scriptures), who created this earth, there are the deities of Choradubi (Protector of Crops), Saljong (God of Fertiliy), Goers (God of Strength), Susince (Goddess of Riches), etc. etc.
In all religious ceremonies, sacrifices were essential for the propitiation of the Spirits. They had to be invoked for births, marriages, deaths, illness, besides for the good crops and welfare of the community and for protection from destructions and danger.
Like the Hindus, the Garos used to show reverence to the ancestors by offering food to the departed souls and by erection of memorial stones.
Dress: Unlike the khasi women, considered to be over-dressed, the Garo women used to wear a small piece of cloth, usually black in colour, around their waist. Some of them put on blouse or vest. The men usually wear, in addition to cloth, a turban. Well-to-do families throw round their shoulders a piece of cloth of silk and cotton during winter. Both men and women cover their body with a rug of bark or a wrapper of blue cotton cloth. On all festive occasions, the Garos, irrespective of sex, wear head-dresses with row of beads stuck with feathers of hornbill. Males & Females – both wear bangles and earings. With the change of times, the dresses also being changed at a fast pace. Educated and well-to-do Garos in the town wear western dress.
Food & Drink: The Garos have no inhibitions about food, except tht they do not take milk or milk products. Their chief means consist of rice with onions, capsicum and salt thrice a day. Practically, all types of animal foods are taken. Drinks are almost an everyday affair. The liquor is not distilled, but prepared by brewing food grains.
In all religious ceremonies, the Garos eat, drink and dance to the accompaniment of music by buffalo horn ‘singas’, bamboo flutes, drums, gongs, and cymbals.
Birth, Marriage & Death: Birth is a matter of joy not only to the family, but also to the community. Elaborate celeberation are customary – naming ceremony is usually observed on the day of birth itself. Till death, the new-born baby belongs to the mother’s family, irrespective of sex, even after marriage. Linage is always matrilineal like the Khasis and jaintias. Except amongst the Nayars in Kerela, this system is not found anywhere in the country. It is unique amonst the Meghalayans in the North East.
Marriage within the clan, is completely banned and severely punishable.Like the Khasis and the Jaintias, the Garos do not abhor free mixing. Marriage is, however, arranged with the formal sanction of the parents. Usually, the girl proposes to the boy. Then the girl and the boy reports to their parents. If both parties agree, the marriage is arranged. Naturally the question of dowry does not arise.
The marriage consist of religious ceremonies. Divorce is easibly obtainable, of course, with mutual consent. The community does not object in case of mutual consent, but it is accepted only on payment of a penalty to the community. In case of adultery, however, mutual consent is not necessary. Mutual consent is also not required in case of infertility.
Death of a person is not only a loss to the family, but is also mourned by the entire community. Elaborate rituals are held. Before embracing Christianity, they used to cremate the dead body. In presence of all relations of the deceased. Now-a-days, according to Christian practice, the body id buried. Cremation or burial expenses are borne by the relatives of the female clan. Wooden ‘kimas’ resembling the body of the dead used to be places in front of the house of the deceased.
Administration: In the Khasi and jaintia Hills, statecraft was quite developed. Particularly, in the jaintia Hills there were centralised powers of Rajahs. In the Khasi Hills, there were local Syiems or Chiefs. But in Garo Hills, we do not come across such Chiefs or Rajahs. There are the Nok-mas, who with the help of Laskars, administer the village community. Laskars are appointed by the Nok-mas. Land belongs to the Nok-mas, but only in name. Anyone can cultivate any land as per the sanction of the Nok-mas. The Nok-mas have, however, to obtain permission of his wife’s Machong.
Bachelor’s Dormitories:
Still now, the institution of bachelors’ dormitories which are withering away amongst the tribe of the north eastrn Region, are found in the Garo villages. In such domitories young people stay and live together till they are married. They receive various training in the dormitories and act according to the direction of the elders for various duties, e.g., protection of crops, construction of roads, organising festivals, sports and ceremonies.
The Khasi-Pnars : The Khasis inhabit the eastern part of Meghalaya, in the Khasi and the Jaintia Hills. 