The Neoliths and Phallic Megaliths of the Khasis, Jaintias, Garos, Kacharis, and Nagas associated with the worship of phallus-linga and yoni, later personified as Shiva and the Mother Goddess, cult of fertility, ancestor worship, soul matter, magic, fetishism and animism led to the evolution of various minor and major religious cults and laid the foundation of socio-religious fabric of India. The ideas connected with the worshipping of memorial stones throughout the length and breadth of our country was brought to prominence first by the non-Aryans. J.H. Hutton informs us that the phallic worship (widely prevalent among the Hindus) is connected with the linga - a simple cone and yone - a triangular prism. Both are somewhat realistically presented by the Nagas and in the prehistoric monoliths of Dimapur (Man in India - A Quarterly Anthropological Journal, II, 3, 1922, p. 150). L.W. Shakespeare also observes that the chessman monoliths of Dimapur “huge lingam (Shiva-Shakti principle) stones - are believed by some savants to be evidence of ancient phallic worship” (History of Assam Rifles, pp. 256 ft).

The religio-cultural and philosophical patterns of India distinctly appear as a curious blend or queer mixture of both the Aryan and non-Aryan elements. The non Aryans tribes’ polytheistic belief, animistic belief, propitiation of both benevolent and malevolent spirits, supernatural objects, heavenly bodies, natural phenomena and other innumerable gods and goddesses having the anthropomorphic attributes based on magico religious systems, eschatological belief or belief in life after death, and their ideas connected with monotheism or in the words of Max Muller henotheism, ritualism, priesthood, sacrifices, omens and divination, popular religious cults of Shaivism, Shaktism, and Tantricism associated with aboriginal forms of worship and other indigenous faiths further flourished after coming within the pale of Aryanisation. The Aryans further systematized, perfected and popularized the system. Most of the scholars are of the opinion that all the ideas connected with Hindu religion and culture conspicuous by their absence in the Vedas can be attributed to the non-Aryans. All the non-Aryan faiths and ideas were further assimilated into the Aryan religious system which further gave birth to intermittent character of Hinduism popularly known as “Proto-Hinduism”. Several Upanishadic, Vedic and Pauranic doctrines and even the Vedantic philosophy have got pre-Aryan features. We find that the followers of three schools of religion - the Vedic, the Pauranic and the Tantric - have thrived equally well among the people of non-Aryan races of the north-east who contributed to the building up of the Socio-cultural fabric of India.

The Archaeological Report of Dr T Bloch (Report of the Archaeological Tour in Assam, 1905) and the discovery of numerous objects in recent archaeological explorations clearly testify to the prevalence of Shaivism and the cult of Mother Goddess in North Eastern Frontier Region in ancient times.

Dr. D Sharma (JARS, XVI, 1962, pp. 22-23) and KL Barua (JARS, VI. I, 1938, pp. 8-9) placing their reliance on the views of John Marshall have tried to establish that the cult of Mother Goddess or the cult of Linga and Yoni are certainly of Pre-Aryan Dravidian origin. The Austrics and the Bodos, according to them, came under the cultural influence of the Dravidians - the authors of the Pre-Aryan Indus Valley culture - and perhaps copied this custom from them. These views are contradictory. As a matter of fact, whether the Austrics and the Bodos of north-eastern region borrowed or copied this custom from the Dravidians of Mohenjodaro and Harappa or vice versa; or some section of the Austric people of north-east India were dwelling in the Indus Valley and later on accepted the Aryanised faith; these are some of the questions which cannot be satisfactorily answered. But it can be definitely asserted that as a result of the mutual cultural contacts and fellowship between the Dravidians, Austrics and Bodos, the cult of Shaivism and Shaktism further flourished. NN Law has correctly stated that “the Mother Goddess cult is pre-Aryan element in the Indian culture. The cult of Linga and Yoni (‘Saiva-Sakta principle’) worshipped in anthropomorphic form is older than the Chalcolithic age of Mohenjodaro. Phallus worship played an important part in the religious and magical ideology of the pre-Aryan and Non-Aryan peoples of India. The cult of Linga became embedded in Brahmanism in the Epic period.” (IHQ, X, I, 1934, pp. 14-20).

The non-Aryan cult of Tantrikism - a system of magical or sacramental ritual associated with magic, sorcery, witchcraft, exorcism, etc - conditioned the development of doctrine of Vedic Karmakanda, which after being accepted by the Aryanised people, further got manifested in Vajrayana cult of Buddhism. The Tantric form of worship is the resultant of the incorporation into Hinduism of a fertility cult which preceded it as the religion of the country.

The theory of Nandlal Dey that the Tantrik doctrines probably spread from the ancient Buddhist University of Vikramshila (near modern Bhagalpur in Bihar) in Kamarupa about the ninth century under the Pala rule (JPASB, X, 1914, p. 346) can fairly be disputed. Both E Gait (History of Assam, pp. VII-VIII, 15, 58) and Charles Eliot (Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. II, pp. 278-79) opposing this view have stated that the birth place of Shaktism and Tantricism, the two important sects, seems to have been north-east India which was inhabited by not Aryans but the people belonging to Mon-Khmer, Tibeto-Burman and Shan families. The north eastern tribal region was neither a land of ancient Brahmanic settlement nor a centre of Vedic and Puranic learning.

The Shaiva cult, which is one of the popular religious cults of Hindus, is admittedly of Kirata origin. Shaivism, Shaktism and Tantricism - the three different sects or forms of Hinduism - are purely of non-Aryan tribal origin. The non-Aryan tribes of north-east India also made some contributions to the evolution of these three sects for faiths in ancient times.

The contributions of some of the tribes of north-east India to the linguistic and literary growth are also of considerable importance. According to RS Dinkar (op. cit., pp. 24, 51, 75-76), the Austric or Mon-Khmer language (spoken by the ancient Khasis) got absorbed in Aryan language and literature. The stories as narrated in Hindu Puranas and Buddhist Jatakas are based on the folk-tales of the Austrics and Dravidians. Some scholars have presumed that even the story of Rama is also based on the popular folk tales of the Austrics. As a result of co-mingling of Aryans, Dravidians and Austrics, their folk tales were given recognition by each other which no doubt influenced the Itihasa, purana and Sanskrit literature. BK Kakati in his thesis (Assamese: Its Formation and Development, pp. 25ff) has clearly stated that both Austrics and Bodos have contributed words to Assamese vocabulary. Kamakhya and Kamarupa may be sanskritization of non-Aryan words Khomoch and Kamrut respectively. Accordingly, to him, the French Indologists Przyluski, Block and Levi, and other scholars, notably Prof. T Burrow has dealt with the Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic influences on Sanskrit.

From the Archaeological Reports of T. Bloch, 1905, Annual Reports of Archaeological Survey of India, 1902, 1903, and other evidence (LW Shakespeare, History of Assam Rifles, pp. 263 ff; JASB, XIV, 2, 1845, pp. 477-78; XVII, I, 1848, pp. 462ff; XLIII, I, 1874, pp. 1-6; LXXI, 3, 1902, pp. 37f) it is evident that the non-Aryan art and architecture was fundamentally based on Indian traditional system. Actually the tribal people laid the foundation of an artistic culture, non-Aryan in form, with little touch of Hindu art on which edifices of other schools of art and architecture have been erected. It further led to the evolution of various architectural and sculptural designs. A marked similarity between the non-Aryan art of this region and that of the contemporary Eastern school of Bihar, Orissa and Pala-Sena art of Bengal can be noticed. The tribal people of north-eastern region attained a high degree of perfection in the field of architectural, sculptural, iconographic and decorative arts as well as paintings and pottery or ceramic arts. They no doubt, contributed a lot to the enrichment of Indian art and architecture. Probably, the relics of Dimapur and Sadiya region - the two premier seats of Tibeto-Burman and non-Aryan culture-show their influences on Assamese art and the arts of other parts of India. S Kramrisch has rightly observed that the various racial factors have determined the art history of India as a whole (Ancient Indian Sculpture, pp. 127-28).

In the political field, the early non-Aryan tribal conceptions of exogamous units, clans, families and villages laid the firm foundation of organized civil administration and it influenced the political evolution of the Vedic Aryans regarding the formation of groups, the family (griha or kula), the village (grama), the canton or clan (vis), and the people (jana). This was rendered possible only due to their early mutual cultural contacts. Looking at over all picture of non-Aryan tribal polity (including that in the north-east) it may be quite heartening to note that their age old and time - honored self governing republican institutions, unaffected by manifold social changes and political turmoils in course of long passage of time covering many centuries or millenniums conserving and preserving their indigenous cultural patterns and practically escaping the fall into general complex dynamic process of transition from monarchy to aristocracy and on to democracy - a thesis, antithesis and synthesis - greatly influenced the Hindu and Buddhist polity and administration from the Vedic age down to 400 BC covering Brahmanic or Upanishadic period, Panini and post-Panini Age as well as the general political system of India.

It is striking to note that some of the north-eastern tribes by offering vigorous resistance to the imperial authority of the Turko-Afghans and the Mughals for nearly six centuries (1206-1740) of Pan-Indian character not only stemmed the tide of the progress of Muslim rule in Eastern Bengal and Assam but also frustrated their sinister designs of planting the banner of crescent over the political horizon of whole North-Eastern India by bringing all the refractory tribes under their political sway and thereby they contributed to the changing of history, geography and civilization of the country to a considerable extent. The saga of their patriotism and gallantry indisputably constitutes an addition to the glaring examples set by their other tribal brethren, mighty heroes, illustrious fighters and victorious princes and monarchs of medieval Hindustan. On the basis of some reliable sources (Baharistan-i-Ghaybi of Mirja Nathan, 2 vols; Riyazu-s-Salatin of Ghulam Hussain Salim; Alamgir Namah of Muhammad Quasim; J.N. Sarkar’s articles in JBORS, vol. I, 1915 and vol. VII, pt. I, 1921; Ahom Buranji by G.C. Barua; Kachari Buranji; Tripura Buranji; Rajamala (royal chronicle of Tripura); C.U. Aitchison’s Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, vol. II; W.W. Hunter’s Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. VI; SK Chatterji’s Kirata-Jana-Kriti; E. Gait’s History of Assam; K.L. Barua’s Early History of Kamarupa; JASB, vol. IX, 1840) we can get a clear picture of the roles played by the Khasis, Jaintias, Garos, Tipperahs, Kacharis, Nagas (of Assam during the Ahom rule), Akas, Daflas and others directly or indirectly in the repulsion of Muslim invasions during the period concerned.

The roles played by the Khasis, Jaintias, and Tipperah rulers in the socio-religious reform movement of the 19th and 20th centuries may form part of the chapter, Indian Renaissance, in the history of modern period.
A vast majority of the tribal people and their chiefs took active part in anti-British movements.

They struck blow after blow to the mighty British Empire and fought battle after battle against the British in their struggle for freedom both at regional and national level. The parts played by the Khasis and Jaintias, Cacharis, Nagas and Kukis in the great Revolt of 1857, the Jaintias in the Rebellion of 1860-63, and the Garos, the Nagas and the Kacharis in the insurrections of 1871-1882, the Risings of the Lushais, 1890-1896, Kuki Revolt of 1917-1919, role of Khasi leaders during the Swadeshi movement 1905-11 and Non-cooperation Movement 1921-1922, and Jadonang’s and Rani Gaidinliu’s fight for Swaraj 1927-1932 can undoubtedly form the part of the chapter, Indian war of Independence, in modern history of India. Rani Gaidinliu’s (contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi) role in the Freedom Movement of India has been highly appreciated by Jawaharlal Nehru in his The Unity of India. (Collected writings, 1937-1940, pp. 187f). All these tribes played historic roles in throwing off the yoke of British rule. The independent nature of these people animated by the spirit of patriotism may be taken as great contribution to the fundamental unity of India during the British Period. S.K. Chatterji has said: “The Spirit of Independence of various tribes may be taken as one of the contributions made to Indian culture and the complex Assamese culture composed of the same elements has got a stamp of independent character which added one more thread to the texture of Indian civilization characterized by its unity in diversities”. The official records, reports and tour diaries preserved in National Archives, New Delhi, and in State archives at Shillong, Gauhati and Calcutta, and the Historical Records 1857-1942 are the principal sources for throwing light on anti-British tribal movements in north-east India.

Thus we find that the tribal people of north-eastern region made remarkable contributions to the socio-politico-cultural evolution of India right from the Neolithic Age till the dawn of independence. The above treatment of the subject whatsoever may lead us to dispose of the view of H.J. Mackinder that “Assam is a country which at most periods of its history has remained outside the Indian civilization” (Cambridge History of India, vol. I, ed. E.J. Rapson, p. 10).

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)