Santhal people

The Santhal (also spelled as Santal, and formerly also spelt as Sontal or Sonthal) are a scheduled tribe of India, who live mainly in the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Assam. There is also a significant Santhal minority in neighboring Bangladesh, and a small population in Nepal (known as Satar in Nepal). They are one of the largest tribal community in India. The Santhals mostly speak Santali, a member of the Munda language family.

Santali Language

The Reverend J. Phillips published 'An Introduction to the Santal Language' in 1852, printed at the Calcutta School - Book Society's Press.

Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, a Norwegian missionary and a language researcher, published 'A Grammar of Santali Language' in 1873.

Paul Olaf Bodding (born Gjøvik, Norway on 2 November 1865, died Odense, Denmark on 25 September 1938) was a Norwegian missionary, linguist and folklorist. He served in India for 44 years (1889–1933), and operated mainly from the town Dumka in the Santal Parganas-district. Bodding created the first alphabet and wrote the first grammar for the Santali-speaking native people in eastern India. In 1914 he also completed the translation of the Bible into the Santali Language.

In 1925 Raghunath Murmu created Ol Chiki script for the Santali Language.

Religion

One of the most studied tribal religions in India, Santhal religion worships Marang buru or Bonga as supreme deity. The weight of belief, however, falls on a court of spirits (bonga), who handle different aspects of the world and who must be placated with prayers and offerings in order to ward off evil influences. These spirits operate at the village, household, ancestor, and sub-clan level, along with evil spirits that cause disease, and can inhabit village boundaries, mountains, water, tigers, and the forest. A characteristic feature of the Santhal village is a sacred grove(known as the "Jaher"^[5] or "Santal Sthal") on the edge of the settlement where many spirits live and where a series of annual festivals take place.^[6]

A yearly round of rituals connected with the agricultural cycle, along with life-cycle rituals for birth, marriage and burial at death, involves petitions to the spirits and offerings that include the sacrifice of animals, usually birds. Religious leaders are male specialists in medical cures who practice divination and witchcraft. Similar beliefs are common among other tribes of northeast and central India such as the Kharia, Munda, and Oraon.^[6]

Smaller and more isolated tribes often demonstrate less articulated classification systems of the spiritual hierarchy, described as animism or a generalized worship of spiritual energies connected with locations, activities, and social groups. Religious concepts are intricately entwined with ideas about nature and interaction with local ecological systems. As in Santhal religion, religious specialists are drawn from the village or family and serve a wide range of spiritual functions that focus on placating potentially dangerous spirits and coordinating rituals.^[6]

Santhali culture

Chadar Badar, a form of puppetry known also as Santhal puppetry, is a folk show involving wooden puppets placed in a small cage which acts as the stage.^[7]

References

Bibliography

• Archer, W. G. The Hill of Flutes: Life, Love, and Poetry in Tribal India: A Portrait of the Santals. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974.
• Bodding, P. O. Santal Folk Tales. Cambridge, Mass.: H. Aschehoug; Harvard University Press, 1925.
• Bodding, P. O. Santal Riddles and Witchcraft among the Santals. Oslo: A. W. Brøggers, 1940.
• Bodding, P. O. A Santal Dictionary (5 volumes), 1933-36 Oslo: J. Dybwad, 1929.
• Bodding, P. O. Materials for a Santali Grammar I, Dumka 1922
• Bodding, P. O. Studies in Santal Medicine and Connected Folklore (3 volumes), 1925–40
• Bompas, Cecil Henry, and Bodding, P. O. Folklore of the Santal Parganas. London: D. Nutt, 1909. Full text at Project Gutenberg.
• Chakrabarti, Dr. Byomkes, A Comparative Study of Santali and Bengali, KP Bagchi, Calcutta, 1994
• Culshaw, W. J. Tribal Heritage; a Study of the Santals. London: Lutterworth Press, 1949.
• Edward Duyker Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1987, pp. 201, SBN 19 561938 2.
• Hembrom, T. The Santals: Anthropological-Theological Reflections on Santali & Biblical Creation Traditions. 1st ed. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1996.
• Orans, Martin. "The Santal; a Tribe in Search of a Great Tradition." Based on thesis, University of Chicago., Wayne State University Press, 1965.
• Prasad, Onkar. Santal Music: A Study in Pattern and Process of Cultural Persistence, Tribal Studies of India Series; T 115. New Delhi: Inter-India Publications, 1985.
• Roy Chaudhury, Indu. Folk Tales of the Santals. 1st ed. Folk Tales of India Series, 13. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1973.
• Troisi, J. The Santals: A Classified and Annotated Bibliography. New Delhi: Manohar Book Service, 1976.
• ———. Tribal Religion: Religious Beliefs and Practices among the Santals. New Delhi: Manohar, 2000.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santhal people.

• Santal Rebellion
• Santal Engineers' Welfare Association - Working for all round development of Adivasi
• All India Santal Welfare and Cultural Society
• Santal Arts
• Santal Dance
• Boro Baski: Santal worries
• Santal culture on Daricha Foundation website (Kolkata)
• Banam The bowed music instrument played by the Santals