Jaintiapur

The town of Jaintiapur (JOINT-tah-poor) is two hours by bus (40km) north-east of Sylhet, on the road to Tamabil. Until the annexation of Sylhet by the British in 1835, it was the capital of the Jaintia kingdom of Jaintiapur, which included the Khasi and Jaintia Hills (modem-day Meghalaya) and the Plains of Jaintia.

Today, nothing remains of the old splendour of the Jaintia kingdom except a rajbari in town and the Temple of Kali on its grounds. The rajbari is now in an extremely ruinous state and hardly worth seeing. It once had outer wall reliefs representing, among other things, horses and lions prancing in a tree. It formerly consisted of two grandiose palaces, one of which contained the Kali temple. This temple was widely feared in the district due to the frequent human sacrifices that took place upon its altars, and which ultimately led to the downfall of the Jaintia royal family.

Even more unusual and unexpected are a small group of striking stone megaliths nearby, which are a prominent landmark in the countryside. They're about 2 and 1/2 metres high and grouped in odd numbers of three, five, seven or nine. There are around 20 such monuments in the vicinity of the rajbari, scattered over an area of about 1km. Unfortunately the monoliths are a popular local picnic spot and the area around them is filthy.

Also found in Meghalaya in neighbouring India, and very similar in shape to the menhirs found in England, Brittany, Ireland, Denmark and Scandinavia, these megaliths, blackened with age, bear historical and social significance, and are believed to be memorials to the chiefs of the Khashia tribe.