Behdienkhlam Festival is the most celebrated cultural festival among the Pnars. Behdienkhlam (chasing away the Demon of Plague) is celebrated annually in July after the sowing period, the most important dance festival of the Jaintia tribes.

The Behdienkhlam literally means driving away the plague as “Khlam” means ‘Plague’ and “Beh Dein” means to drive away the plague.

The unique and ancient festival of Behdienkhlam, celebrated by the Jaintia or Pnar tribal community of Meghalaya, is the ritualistic expression of the relentless struggle of mankind to overcome the destructive forces of nature, including diseases, since the dawn of civilization.

This festival is also an invocation to God seeking blessings for a good harvest. Women offer sacrificial food to the spirits of their ancestors.

The Behdienkhlam Festival is celebrated by the Pnars as a form of homage which is paid to the Gods of the Seven Huts who arrived in the region from heaven and established a kingdom here.

The Rituals

The festival of Behdienkhlam begins with a ritual in which the Daloi or the chief of the area or “Elaka” opens the proceedings with a ceremonial invocation to the Gods of the tribes through a series of religious rites. However, the main attraction of the Behdeinkhlam festival takes place when young men playfully fight through the crowd to touch a huge beam or the “Khnong Blai”, which signifies good health.

A week before the festival begins, a pig is sacrificed to the "God of thunder"(Knia Pyrthat) to ward off all evils. The underlying idea and purpose of this festival are to drive away all evils that plague human life.

The main feature of the festival is the making of the "dein khlam" and "khnong", which are rounded, polished and tall tree trunks, felled in a forest. Pine trees are never used. After letting them lie in the woods for a couple of nights, the trunks are brought to the town with great fanfare. Later, these trunks are erected in each locality and in front of individual homes. The “Khnong Blai” on the other hand is brought to the market where prayer is held, to thank the Gods for the smooth movement of the festival.

On the fourth day, young men, led by priests, carry bamboo sticks and visit each home beating roof-tops to chase away evil spirits, especially the demon of plague to the accompaniment of drums, cymbals and chanting in Pnar. The erected "Dein Khlam khien"(small tree tied at the entrance of every home) is pulled down, broken and discarded. The group is offered home-brewed rice beer by the lady of the house.

Participating in the festival, niamtre faithful both young and old from various localities like Iongpiah, Dulong, Panaliar, Loomkyrwiang, Chilliangraij, Loomiongkjam, Tpep-pale Iawmusiang, Ummulong and Shillong Sein Raij brought their well-designed colourful ‘Rots’ or ‘Raths’ at Aitnar (sacred pool). (Ki niamtre is an indigenous faith.)

The various rots carry with them different meaning and messages depicting the present social, political and economic issues of the state and apparently the Behdienkhlam is not all about driving away sickness but also driving away such social evils that inflict the society.

The elders of the Sein Raij, including the Doloi (religious heads), performed various rituals before the rots were brought to the pool.

These days, the Behdienkhlam "rots" are built on wide-ranging global issues, including politics and sports. The climax of the celebrations is the tussle, as seen in a tug of war, for a large trunk known as "khnong Blai", by men of all age groups. The trunk is then immersed in the muddy waters of the Aitnar (sacred pool). While the “rots” are demolished by dropping them in the corner, away from the pool.

Religious rites and sacrifices at the sacred pool precede the immersion ceremony in the early hours of the morning. Mud is generously smeared by the participants on each other which resemble the Holi celebrations of the plains.

Concluding ceremony

The festival of Behdienkhlam reaches its conclusion with the Dad-lawakor ceremony in which groups of men jostle for the possession of a wooden ball, a game which is remotely similar to football, in which the winning side(pynthor nein & pynthor wah) is said to have a prosperous harvest. The festival ends with a final salutation to the divine powers when the women of the tribe offer sacrificial food (Bam Tyngkong) to the Almighty.

The four-day-long ritual of the Niamtre of the Pnar community concludes with colourful rituals where “Rots” from different parts of Jowai in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, are bought to aitnar (sacred pool) where thousands of people witness the concluding day of the Behdeinkhlam.

This festival signifies fighting against all sorts of social evils. This festival is being celebrated from time immemorial and it is said that once the people of this place had to face a severe epidemic, and thus people gathered to drive away this evil. Hence, the tradition continued thereafter.

In this festival, people dance in the pool of mud waters, as they hold tall structures called the 'rot'. Groups from various localities one by one bring these “rots” and get into the pool of mud water and dance.

The rots are decorated in various designs, portraying social messages of good winning over evil.

Contact with Hindu Culture and its influence

The Pnar though lived in isolation had contact with the Hindu people of present Bangladesh through trading prior to the establishment of the Jaintiapur Kingdom in the 15th century¹.

Evidence of commercial or emissary contacts with the Mughal emperor or their viceroys at Murshidabad around the 17th century was provided by G.G. Swell who unearthed a number of silver-plated coins from the pond at Jowai in the Jaintia Hills.

Hindu influence on the Pnars can be traced back to the 16th century when Bor Kusain became the first Hinduised king of the Jaintia. By the beginning of the 19th century (1828) most of the leading men have adopted Hinduism. Nartiang the summer capital of Jaintiapur kingdom became the centre of Hinduism and to date, a small section of the population profess Hinduism. A Hindu temple where the Brahman priest performs the rites and ceremonies continues to function in this village.

The influence of Hinduism in Jaintia hills and Nartiang, in particular, had brought a considerable impact on society. The adoption of Hinduism by the king and seeing himself as a champion of a new faith helped the consolidation of his rule and culturally influenced all the subjects including the people of the hills (Lamare 2005: 94). In social life general abstention of the Pnar (especially non-christian) from eating beef could be the influence of Hinduism. To date, both the Christian and non-christian Hindu names are very common. It became customary to give names like U Ram and U Lakhan to male twins and as Ka Konka and Durka to female twins. Musical instruments of Hindustani music like harmonium and tabla are incorporated into Pnar indigenous music. In terms of dress, although the women use the traditional way of tying their sarong they term it Ka Sari (Hindu term), the male on the other hand adopted the Dhoti.

Hindu culture had permeated the political institution where Pakem states that with the decline of the power of the priests and the concentration of power in the hands of the secular authority, an era of the erosion of democracy began. At first, there was only a crack in the democratic nature of Jaintia State. With the experience of the king’s autocratic rule in the plains, the Dalois in the hills also began to initiate the king’s style of functioning. The Dalois then regarded their Raids on the same level as that of a zamindary where from popular democratic rulers they turned overnight into petty oligarchs. A crack had become a chasm and Jaintia democracy became merely an oligarchy when the British arrived on the political scene of the Jaintia state.

Reference

1. The Pnar Trilogy: Explicating Pnar Society and Culture through the Lahoo Dance by Valentina Pakyntein

Image courtesy: Government of Meghalaya website