The Mising, sometimes called Miri, are an indigenous community inhabiting parts of the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. They were also known as Miris in the past and still recognized as Miris in the Constitution of India. Misings are recognised as a Scheduled Tribe by the Indian government under the name 'Miri'. Their language, Mising, is part of the Tani branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Etymology is an endonym and literally means "man of the soil." , on the other hand, is an exonym commonly applied by plains Assamese people. There is still much scholarly debate on the origins of this term: some colonial scholars argued 'miri' referred to their status as intermediaries between plains peoples in the Brahmaputra Valley and hill tribes to the north, while others such as Grierson (1909) thought it meant "gentleman," while Crooks interpreted it as "hill man." More recent scholarship associated with religious functionaries in some Tani hill-tribes. According to this view, when the Misings migrated to the plains they were identified as coming from the ('Miri hills'), whose feats of magic would have been well-known back then, and the name stuck. History The Misings belong to the greater group of Tani people, who speak languages of the Sino-Tibetan family, which comprise many tribes of Arunachal Pradesh in India and Tibet. All Tani tribes share linguistic, cultural and genetic similarities. They have greatest similarity with Tani peoples of the Siang-Subansiri region, especially the Padam-Miniyong. The earliest mention of the Misings comes from the Ahom kingdom in the early 17th century, when the Misings were still independent hill-tribes to the north of the Brahmaputra valley. In 1615, the Misings raided Ahom territory and the force sent to subdue them failed. In 1655, the Misings launched another raid which resulted in a successful counterraid by Ahom forces during which the Misings were subjugated. They agreed to pay an annual tribute to the Ahoms and gave 12 men to the Ahoms for the two they burnt. Afterwards many Misings were given high positions in Ahom administration, evidence of their greater cultural contact with the Assamese compared with other hill-tribes. There is no written history of Misings about their migration from the Himalayas to the plains of Assam but history was passed down orally in the form of folk songs and stories by the ancestors from generation to generation and is still prevalent among their society.