Megaliths, Types and Its Living Traditions Among the Jaintias of Meghalaya, India

Marak, Queenbala

doi:10.7152/jipa.v32i0.10643

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…In northeastern parts of India, megalithic remains of different shapes and sizes are found in a belt extending from the Khasi and Jaintia Hills through Karbi Anglong up to the Naga Hills besides Manipur, Mizoram and certain areas of Arunachal Pradesh. The greatest concentration of megaliths is observed in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, where large scatterings occur at Cherrapunjee, Mawphlang, Laitlyngkot, Laitkor, Jowai and Nartiang (also spelt as Nartiyang) (Bareh 1981;Mawlong 1996Mawlong , 2004Marak 2012aMarak , 2019Mitri 2016). In Assam, megaliths are mostly concentrated in the Morigaon, Kamrup, Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts (Medhi 1999;Bezbaruah 2003;Choudhury 2004;Sarma 2011;Thakuria et al 2016).…”

Section: Megaliths In Assam and Other Part Of Northeast Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Raj Sabha at Silchang: Dolmens as Administrative Seats of Ancient Khola Kingdom in Assam, India

Hazarika

Patar²,

Sanathana

et al. 2020

JIPA

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Northeast India is well known for the widespread megalithic structures found in different geographical and cultural contexts. Construction of megaliths is also a living tradition among many of the ethnic communities of this region. The dolmen, a megalithic structure made with a large undressed or roughly shaped stone slab supported by several upright stones at the base, is invariably found in all the megalithic cultural traditions across India. In the northeastern parts of India, dolmens are often constructed as resting and meeting places of a community. This paper presents the association of such dolmens with a traditional Raj Sabha (royal assembly) of the Khola king of the Tiwa community of Assam. The Raj Sabha, even today held annually at the Silchang megalithic site, is a unique tradition of a royal assembly functioning symbolically on a cluster of dolmens, and is significant to understanding the functional variability of the megaliths and the use of megaliths as a seat of power in an archaic society.

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