The Pnar, also known as Jaiñtia, are a sub-tribal group of the

Khasi people The Khasi people are an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic Ethnicity, ethnic group of Meghalaya in north-eastern India with a significant population in the bordering state of Assam and in certain parts of Bangladesh. Khasi people form the ...

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The Pnar people are

matrilineal Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...

. They speak the

Pnar Language Pnar (), also known as Jaiñtia is an Austroasiatic language spoken in India and Bangladesh. Geographic distribution As a Khasic language, Pnar belongs to a complex dialect continuum which includes mixed varieties whose exact relations remai ...

, which belongs to the Austro-Asiatic language family and is very similar to the

Khasi language Khasi () is an Austroasiatic language with just over a million speakers in north-east India, primarily the Khasi people in the state of Meghalaya. It has associate official status in some districts of this state. The closest relatives of Khasi ...

. The Pnar people are natives of West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya, India. They call themselves as "Ki Khun Hynñiew Trep" (Children of 7-hut). Their main festivals are Behdeinkhlam, Chad Suk-kara, Chad Pastieh and Laho Dance.

Etymology

The name "Pnar" is an

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

, while "Jaiñtia" and "Synteng" are

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

s. The word "Jaiñtia" is derived from the name of a former kingdom, the Jaintia Kingdom, whose rulers were Syntengs. One theory says that the word "Jaiñtia" is ultimately derived from the name of the shrine of Jayanti Devi or Jainteswari, an incarnation of the Hindu goddess

Durga Durga (, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around combating evils and demonic ...

. Another theory says that the name is derived via Synteng from ''Sutong'', a former settlement; the myth of Jayanti Devi was probably created after the Hinduisation of the Jaintia kingdom.

History

As with all sub-tribes of the Khasi tribe, the Pnar sub-tribals have no recorded history of their own. However, they are mentioned in the

Buranji Buranjis (Ahom language: ''ancient writings'') are a class of historical chronicles and manuscripts associated with the Ahom kingdom. There were written initially in the Ahom Language and later in the Assamese language as well. The Buranjis ar ...

chronicles of Assam and the British records. Like all the other sub-tribes of the Khasi tribe, the Pnar people also claim descent from ''Ki Hynñiew Trep'' seven 'huts'(derived from - ïing 'Trep') or seven families The rulers of the medieval Jaintia Kingdom belonged to the Synteng community. The Kingdom was annexed by the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

in 1835, and merged into the

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

province. The Jaintia Hills district was established in the region after the establishment of the

state in independent India, in 1972. There are Pnar people in the Jaintiapur upazila,

Sylhet Sylhet (; ) is a Metropolis, metropolitan city in the north eastern region of Bangladesh. It serves as the administrative center for both the Sylhet District and the Sylhet Division. The city is situated on the banks of the Surma River and, as o ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Religion

The original tribal religion of the Pnars is known as Niamtre. The Pnar tribals believe that their religion is God-given (not founded by man) and comes to this world by God's decree. The three cardinal principles dictated by God are kamai yei hok, tipbru tipblai and tipkur tipkha. They signify right living and practice based on right livelihood; fulfillment of duties towards fellow men to reach God; and showing respect to the members of one's father's and mother's clans. Therefore, Niamtre stresses equal weight to be given to fellow humans to attain God realisation. Religious wise out of 4 lakh Jaintias, around 2.4 lakh (60% of the ethnic population) professed

Christian faith Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

of various denominations particularly (

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

) and the remaining 1.6 lakh (40% of ethnic population) practice their original tribal religion called "Ka Niamtre".blog.cpsindia.org/2016/10/religion-data-of-census-2011-xxx-st.html
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References

{{authority control Khasi people Scheduled Tribes of Meghalaya Tribes of Meghalaya Ethnic groups in Northeast India Ethnic groups in South Asia