Sangma Chatchi
Garo
At a glance
- Called a
- Chatchi
- Community
- Garo
- Found in
- Meghalaya, Assam, Bangladesh
About
Sangma is one of the chatchis, the great exogamous clans of the Garo (A·chik) of Meghalaya, Assam and Bangladesh, and the name is carried as a surname. A Garo is Sangma because the mother is. Playfair found Sangma in every geographical division of the tribe, in the hills and in the plains, and among the neighbouring Megam. The chatchi is made up of many machong, lines that trace descent from one ancestress, such as Koknal, Do·bakkol and Wa·sra.
What “Chatchi” means for the Garo
A chatchi (Playfair, 1909, writes katchi) is one of the great exogamous clans of the Garo, taken from the mother: a Sangma may not marry a Sangma. Each chatchi holds many machong, 'motherhoods', lines descended from one ancestress, and the chatchi name is carried as a surname. It is a Garo clan in its own system, not a gotra.
Every chatchi of the Garo, with how the clan system works: the Garo page.
Name and Origin
The sources read do not explain the name Sangma. Playfair (1909) tried to learn how the Garo clans began and could form no opinion: he had heard them called totemic but knew of no totem tale that applied to a whole clan. Some Garos told him that all Garos had once been Momin, and that the other clans, Sangma among them, were formed by people who left the parent settlement and lived apart.
Historical Journey
Major A. Playfair, a Deputy Commissioner in the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, described the Garo in The Garos (1909). He names three katchis, Momin, Marak and Sangma, and writes that Marak and Sangma are found among all the geographical divisions of the tribe, however much these differ in speech and custom, and whether they live in the hills or the plains; the Megam on the Khasi border have Sangma and Marak too. His Appendix A lists some of the best-known Sangma machongs, among them Adima, Ampang, Bolsal, Chisik, Dalbot, Dibra, Do·bakkol, Koknal, Mankin, Mecheng, Nengminja, Rema, Simsang and Wa·sra; some, such as Dalbot and Koknal, he also found under Momin or Marak, and such machongs belong to both. A century later Shuvash Jengcham, writing for Banglapedia, counts Sangma among five major Garo clans, with Marak, Momin, Shira and Areng.
How the Chatchi Is Kept
In Playfair's account husband and wife must come from different chatchis and different machongs: a Sangma cannot marry a Sangma, and the children belong to the mother's chatchi and machong. To marry within one's chatchi was a social sin, though he was told that nearly one marriage in ten broke the rule. Property stays in the machong: a daughter inherits, and her husband, the nokrom, usually from her father's line, comes to live in the house. Sources do not tie a family deity to the Sangma chatchi.
Presence Across Regions
Garo Hills, Meghalaya
Tribal - Garo
Playfair found Sangma in every geographical division of the hills, from the Awe in the north to the Abeng, Chibok, Ganching and Atong in the south.
Mymensingh, Bangladesh
Tribal - Garo
Playfair writes that the plains Garo of Mymensingh keep most of the hill divisions, and that Sangma and Marak are found in the plains as in the hills.
Stories and Legends
The Koknal machong
Playfair records why one Sangma machong is called Koknal. Its 'grandmother', as the Garo call the ancestress of a machong, was a very rich old woman, who was carried off in a kok, a Garo carrying-basket, for the sake of her wealth. Two other Sangma machongs take their names from places: Do·bakkol from the famous bats' cave near Siju, and Wa·sra from the Wasra stream, on whose bank its people lived.