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Updated: May 27, 2025
There is nothing therefore to show that they were erected so as to face the direction of the sun-rise, or of any particular planet's. We will now pass on to the numerous stone cromlechs which are to be found, frequently in proximity to the menhirs and table-stones.
The greater number of the flat table-stones we see in front of the standing monoliths in these hills are erected in honour of Ka Iawbei. In former times, it was the custom to offer food to her on these stones.
It is proposed to treat this subject under the following heading: A general description of the memorial stones in the Khasi Hills, showing, that they are very similar in shape to monoliths, table-stones, or cromlechs in other parts of the world and of India.
The Khasis borrowed their religious customs largely from the Synteng inhabitants of Jaintia, and it is possible that they may have obtained the custom of erecting the table-stones from the Syntengs also, and that the latter were originally used by both of them for sacrificing human victims.
It frequently happens that there are two flat table-stones in front of the upright stones, the one on the left being ka Iawbei tynrai, or the first ancestress, and the one on the right ka Iawbei longkpoh, the grandmother of the branch of the clan to, which the memorialists belong, or ka Iawbei khynraw, the young grandmother, i.e. the grandmother of the actual family to which the memorialists belong.
They are to be found in great numbers all along the roads or paths which lead to the clan cromlechs. These stones, unlike the mawbynna, have no names. The upright stones are called maw-shynrang, or male stones, and the flat table-stones maw-kynthei, or female stones.
Probably one of the first objects which strikes the eye of a visitor to the Khasi Hills is the very large number of monoliths, table-stones, and cromlechs that are to be met with almost everywhere in that country.
In olden days it used to be the custom for the clanspeople to place offerings of food on the flat table-stones for the shades of the departed ancestors, and this is sometimes the case still; but now it is more frequently the custom to make these offerings in the iing-seng, or clan puja-house.
This stone is the largest erect stone in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills at the present day, and is a very fine specimen. The upright stones and the flat table-stones at Nartiang are called "ki maw jong Siem." There is no separate designation for each of them.
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