Jaintia Kingdom

The Jaintia Kingdom extended from the east of the Shillong Plateau of present-day Meghalaya in north-east India, into the plains to the south, and north to the Barak River valley in Assam, India. The capital, Jaintiapur, now ruined, was located on the plains at the foot of the Jaintia Hills; it appears there may have been a summer capital at Nartiang in the Jaintia Hills, but little remains of it now apart from a Durga temple and a nearby site with many megalithic structures. The name Jaintia is derived from Zantein or Synteng, the collective name of different tribal groups from the region. The Syntengs, Pnar and War, speak Mon-Khmer languages that are related to Khasi. Much of what is today the Sylhet region of Bangladesh was at one time under the jurisdiction of the Jaintia king.

The origin of the Jaintia kingdom is unknown, but the Jaintia people share a megalithic culture with the related Khasi people on the Shillong plateau which is of uncertain age, but their common oral history claims that they settled the region in the distant past. After the 17th century invasion by the Kachari king Satrudaman, the Jaintia kingdom came under increasing Kachari and Ahom political influence. The Jaintia Kingdom was annexed by the British East India Company in 1835.

Rulers

• Prabhat Ray (1500–1516)
• Majha Gosain (1516–1532)
• Burha Parbat Ray (1532–1548)
• Bar Gosain (1548–1564)
• Bijay Manik (1564–1580)
• Pratap Ray (1580–1596)
• Dhan Manik (1596–1612)
• Jasa Manik (1612–1625)
• Sundar Ray (1625–1636)
• Chota Parbat Ray (1636–1647)
• Jasamanta Ray (1647–1660)
• Ban Singh (1660–1669)
• Pratap Singh (1669–1678)
• Lakshmi Narayan (1678–1694)
• Ram Singh I (1694–1708)
• Jay Narayan (1708–1731)
• Bar Gosain (1731–1770)
• Chattra Singh (1770–1780)
• Bijay Narayan (1780–1790)
• Ram Singh II (1790–1832)
• Rajendra Singh (1832–1835)

References

• Gait, Edward A. A History of Assam, Calcutta, 1906.