JAINTIA, a tract of country in the province of Assam, divided into the Jaintia hills and the Jaintia plains. Indra Singh, the last raja of Jaintia, was a petty chief whose family had risen to importance amid the ruins of the Kachari kingdom at the close of the 18th century. Previously to the conquest of Assam, in 1824, the inhabitants of Jaiutia were in the frequent habit of capturing British subjects in Sylhet, to offer up as sacri fices at the shrine of Kali. In 1832, two British subjects were passing along the high-road in Assam, Nvlien they were suddenly seized and carried up into the hills in the neighbourhood of Goba, in the Nowgong district. After having been decked out with new clothes and jewels, they were led away to be sacrificed, together with two other persons, also subjects of the British Government. One of the individuals, however, succeeded in making his escape, and on his return to the plains he gave information of what had occurred ; and as no tidings were ever afterwards heard of the three other indi viduals, little doubt remained but that they were sacrificed. The chief had been frequently re
quired to surrender the guilty individuals, but all to no purpose ; and there being strong reason for believing that the chief had wilfully screened the perpetrators of this horrible crime, the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, in February 1835, confiscated all his territory situ ated in the plains. Dantipar consequently became annexed to the district of Nowgong, and these horrible atrocities were put a stop to. The raja voluntarily resigned the hill tract, and of this the British also took possession.
The Jaintia Hills are divided into 25 fiscal divisions, of which 3 are inhabited by Kuki or Lushai immigrants, and 1 by Mikirs. The remainder of the inhabitants are Syntengs, a race akin to the Kliasiyas, but reported to have distinct ethnical characteristics and a language of their own.—Butler's Travels in Assent, pp. 246,247.