The human body is either cremated or buried after death to be converted to earth, while the soul will be integrated with the divine. That is why the spirit of every human prevails on earth after the demise of the mortal body, and there is a Khasi custom of keeping the corpse for three days before actual cremation, and the door of the house is never closed during those three days for the free passage of the expired soul. People often narrate that the spirit of the dead would perform their usual chores while they were alive and, in the still of the night, some people would hear the familiar sound of their movements. On rare occasions, there were ghost stories of the spirit haunting the house or rooms indulging in mischievous and violent action with traces of authentic evidence of their existence.
The soil, the land is the core of creation for all living and nonliving objects on Earth. From ancient times to the present modern age, every mechanism, technology, and construction of any object depends on the resources derived from nature that are nurtured on earth. In Khasi mythology, earth or Mother Earth is the core of existence for everything in cosmic space. That is why the earth is revered as the mother or Meiramew, and the biological procreation and genetic heredity of humans are traced from the womb of the mother. The link of the umbilical cord from the womb of the mother to the infant conceived by the mother is an inseparable and undisputed foundation for the descendants of progeny as reflected through the matrilineal system of clan lineage.
The human mother is the metaphor of the mother-earth in the life cycle of the generation of human beings. The umbilical connection of the earth with heaven is synonymous with the umbilical cord of the mother to her infant inside the womb. Therefore, the earth is the mother of all creations facilitated by the soil and land. The soil for reproduction and the land for habitation is a symbolic representation of the mother in every aspect of reproduction, survival, and sustenance- the mother ‘Ka Kmie’ ‘Ïawbei’ or ‘Mei’, motherland ‘Meirilung Meirisan’, mother-nature ‘Meimariang’, mother-earth ‘Meiramew’.
Soil as the reproductive resource, is manifested through farming and agriculture, and land as the resource of habitat, and social and cultural necessities, is evident through shelter huts, sacred homes, bridges, and other traditional infrastructures. In any of the necessities of human utilities, a portion of the land is allotted to an individual or family for the welfare of the people and the convenience of society. The Khasi system of allotment of land is based on the actual needs of the concerned individual and family in a particular situation because the land is managed by the collective decision of the community, and supervised by the respective representatives elected by the community.
Land neither belongs to the community nor the person, because the community is a collective custodian of the land and every person or family can utilise the land for their legitimate requirements. As long as the individual or family utilised the land for their well-being, they are entitled to retain it for generations, but they cannot own it. In the case of any individual or family, shifting their habitation elsewhere or discontinuing to utilise the allotted portion of the land, it will be retrieved by the community. The system was effective even for commercial purposes also, when traders from across the border were involved in the transaction.
The ancient system of setting up a market in the Khasi society is that the land earmarked for trading is given preference to the citizens, while migrant traders could occupy the periphery. The Indigenous people are the citizens or ‘Ki Khun Ki Hajar’, while the migrants are the subjects or ‘Raiot’. The concept of the market in Khasi thoughts is to serve society with the expertise of a particular person or a group of people engaged in the trade.
In the Khasi concept, the market is a means of economic well-being for citizens engaging in exchanging goods according to the specific needs of the customers for marginal profit, but not a lucrative avenue to accumulate wealth. Before the British colonial administration, the traditional market was transacted through a barter system. Nowadays, these value systems have been discarded and everything is valued in terms of currency notes, including the value of land.
Unfortunately, the custodianship of the community over the land becomes the legitimate possession of the community. Today, land may be allotted to the clan members at the discretion of the representative of the clan, even if it goes against the collective decision of the community. Furthermore, land became community property of the clan that could be sold at a price to any wealthy consumer within or outside the clan. The prospective location of land became a lucrative property for commercial exploitation.
During the pre-colonial period, there were specific rituals and ceremonies in reverence of the land as a resource for the well-being of the people and society. Earth is perceived as the mother in ancient folk culture, but after the onslaught of the British colonial regime, the local people learned to trade the land for lucrative purposes. Civilisation has taught every culture throughout the world to adapt to modern systems and to consider ancient knowledge as primitive customs.
In the olden days, when a plot of land was identified by any family for building a hut for shelter, the head of the clan would approve it with the endorsement of the clan council. On the completion of the building of the hut, the housewarming ceremony known as ‘Kynjoh Khaskaiñ’ will be hosted by the beneficiary family, paying obeisance to the home deity known as ‘Leiiing Leisem’ or ‘Lukhimai’. The community will be involved in the ceremony and partake in the feast and other customary practices. When another plot is earmarked for farming, the same approval of the head of the clan and endorsement of the clan council is mandatory.
