The Santhals (also spelled as Santhal; formerly also Sonthal) are the largest tribal community in India, found mainly in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, and Orissa. There is also a significant Santhal minority in neighboring Bangladesh.
The Santhali language is part of the Austro-Asiatic family, distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer. A few of the Indian anthropologists also believe that humans first came to India about 65000-55000 years ago[citations needed]. The earliest of them were Proto-Australoids followed by the Proto-Dravidians. The Proto-Australoids can be identified with some facial characteristics such as low forehead, thick lips, wide jaw and wavy hair. Historians believe that they were the ancestors of the tribal community residing in the eastern part of India (excluding hilly portions). So the Santhals, Kols and Mundas may be the descendants of them.
But in those times their primary way of subsistence were hunting and food gathering. The agrarian way of living was brought by the Aryans who came about in the 1500 B.C. How the Mohenjo- Daro civilization annihilated is a big question whether there was an Aryan invasion or a major environmental change that wiped them out is still under research and every day new theories are coming out.
Coming back to the history of tribals, the Proto Australoids their earliest ancestors started living in the forest in the eastern part of India .
The Santhali script, or Ol Chiki, is alphabetic, and does not share any of the syllabic properties of the other Indic scripts such as Devanagari. It uses 30 letters and five basic diacritics. It has 6 basic vowels and three additional vowels, generated using the Gahla Tudag.
The Santhal script is a relatively recent innovation. Santhali did not have a written language until the twentieth century and used Latin/Roman, Devnagri and Bangla writing systems.As none of the existing scripts were sufficient enough to correctly express the Santhali language phonetically,a need for the separate script was felt by some visionary Santhals,which resulted in the invention of new script called Ol Chiki by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925. For his noble deed and contribution of the script Ol Chiki for the Santhal society,he is revered among Santhals. He wrote over 150 books covering a wide spectrum of subjects such as grammar, novels, drama, poetry, and short stories in Santhali using Ol Chiki as part of his extensive programme for uplifting the Santhal community. Darege Dhan, Sidhu-Kanhu, Bidu Chandan and Kherwal Bir are among the most acclaimed of his works. Pandit Raghunath Murmu is popularly known as Guru Gomke among the Santhals, a title conferred on him by the Mayurbhanj Adibasi Mahasabh.
Beside Pandit Raghunath Murmu, very few Indian linguists worked seriously on the linguistic aspects of the language. One of them was Dr. Byomkes Chakrabarti (1923-1981). He was a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages. He was a renowned educationist and a poet too. His major contribution was in finding out some basic relationship between Santhali language and Bengali language. He showed how the Bengali language has got some unique characteristics, which are absent in other Indian languages, under the influence of Santhali language(in 'A Comparative Study of Santhali and Bengali'). His contribution was fundamental in nature in the origin and development of the Bengali and Santhali language and provided scopes of research in newer fields in liguistics.
The Santhali culture has attracted many scholars and anthropologists for decades. The first attempt to study the Santhali culture was done by the Christian missionaries. The most famous of them was the Norwegian-born Reverend Paul Olaf Bodding. Unlike many other tribal groups of the Indian subcontinent, the Santhals are known for preserving their native language despite waves of migrations and invasions from Mughals, Europeans, and others.
Santhali culture is depicted in the paintings and artworks in the walls of their houses. Local mythology includes the stories of the Santhal ancestors Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Bhudi.
The Santhal people love music and dance. Like other Indian people groups, their culture has been influenced by mainstream Indian culture and by Western culture, but traditional music and dance still remain. Santhal music differs from Hindustani classical music in significant ways. Onkar Prasad has done the most recent work on the music of the Santhal but others preceded his work. The Santhal traditionally accompany many of their dances with two drums: the Tamak' and the Tundak'. The flute (tiriao) was considered the most important Santhal traditional instrument and still evokes feelings of nostalgia for many Santhal. Santhal dance and music traditionally revolved around Santhal religious celebrations. This is still true to a degree although traditional religious beliefs have been significantly altered by Hindu belief and Christian mission work. However, Santhal music and dance both retain connections to traditional celebrations. The names of many Santhal tunes are derived from the traditional ritual with which they were once associated. Sohrae tunes, for example, were those sung at the Sohrae festival.
The Santhal community is devoid of any caste system and there is no distinction made on the basis of birth. They believe in supernatural beings and ancestral spirits. Santhali rituals are mainly comprised of sacrificial offerings and invocations to the spirits, or bongas. It is believed by some scholars that Bonga means the same as Bhaga (or Bhagavan).[4] The Santhal system of governance, known as Manjhi–Paragana, may be compared to what is often called Local Self Governance. This body is responsible for making decisions to ameliorate the village's socioeconomic condition.
The Santhali language is part of the Austro-Asiatic family, distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer. A few of the Indian anthropologists also believe that humans first came to India about 65000-55000 years ago[citations needed]. The earliest of them were Proto-Australoids followed by the Proto-Dravidians. The Proto-Australoids can be identified with some facial characteristics such as low forehead, thick lips, wide jaw and wavy hair. Historians believe that they were the ancestors of the tribal community residing in the eastern part of India (excluding hilly portions). So the Santhals, Kols and Mundas may be the descendants of them.
But in those times their primary way of subsistence were hunting and food gathering. The agrarian way of living was brought by the Aryans who came about in the 1500 B.C. How the Mohenjo- Daro civilization annihilated is a big question whether there was an Aryan invasion or a major environmental change that wiped them out is still under research and every day new theories are coming out.
Coming back to the history of tribals, the Proto Australoids their earliest ancestors started living in the forest in the eastern part of India .
The Santhali script, or Ol Chiki, is alphabetic, and does not share any of the syllabic properties of the other Indic scripts such as Devanagari. It uses 30 letters and five basic diacritics. It has 6 basic vowels and three additional vowels, generated using the Gahla Tudag.
The Santhal script is a relatively recent innovation. Santhali did not have a written language until the twentieth century and used Latin/Roman, Devnagri and Bangla writing systems.As none of the existing scripts were sufficient enough to correctly express the Santhali language phonetically,a need for the separate script was felt by some visionary Santhals,which resulted in the invention of new script called Ol Chiki by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925. For his noble deed and contribution of the script Ol Chiki for the Santhal society,he is revered among Santhals. He wrote over 150 books covering a wide spectrum of subjects such as grammar, novels, drama, poetry, and short stories in Santhali using Ol Chiki as part of his extensive programme for uplifting the Santhal community. Darege Dhan, Sidhu-Kanhu, Bidu Chandan and Kherwal Bir are among the most acclaimed of his works. Pandit Raghunath Murmu is popularly known as Guru Gomke among the Santhals, a title conferred on him by the Mayurbhanj Adibasi Mahasabh.
Beside Pandit Raghunath Murmu, very few Indian linguists worked seriously on the linguistic aspects of the language. One of them was Dr. Byomkes Chakrabarti (1923-1981). He was a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages. He was a renowned educationist and a poet too. His major contribution was in finding out some basic relationship between Santhali language and Bengali language. He showed how the Bengali language has got some unique characteristics, which are absent in other Indian languages, under the influence of Santhali language(in 'A Comparative Study of Santhali and Bengali'). His contribution was fundamental in nature in the origin and development of the Bengali and Santhali language and provided scopes of research in newer fields in liguistics.
The Santhali culture has attracted many scholars and anthropologists for decades. The first attempt to study the Santhali culture was done by the Christian missionaries. The most famous of them was the Norwegian-born Reverend Paul Olaf Bodding. Unlike many other tribal groups of the Indian subcontinent, the Santhals are known for preserving their native language despite waves of migrations and invasions from Mughals, Europeans, and others.
Santhali culture is depicted in the paintings and artworks in the walls of their houses. Local mythology includes the stories of the Santhal ancestors Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Bhudi.
The Santhal people love music and dance. Like other Indian people groups, their culture has been influenced by mainstream Indian culture and by Western culture, but traditional music and dance still remain. Santhal music differs from Hindustani classical music in significant ways. Onkar Prasad has done the most recent work on the music of the Santhal but others preceded his work. The Santhal traditionally accompany many of their dances with two drums: the Tamak' and the Tundak'. The flute (tiriao) was considered the most important Santhal traditional instrument and still evokes feelings of nostalgia for many Santhal. Santhal dance and music traditionally revolved around Santhal religious celebrations. This is still true to a degree although traditional religious beliefs have been significantly altered by Hindu belief and Christian mission work. However, Santhal music and dance both retain connections to traditional celebrations. The names of many Santhal tunes are derived from the traditional ritual with which they were once associated. Sohrae tunes, for example, were those sung at the Sohrae festival.
The Santhal community is devoid of any caste system and there is no distinction made on the basis of birth. They believe in supernatural beings and ancestral spirits. Santhali rituals are mainly comprised of sacrificial offerings and invocations to the spirits, or bongas. It is believed by some scholars that Bonga means the same as Bhaga (or Bhagavan).[4] The Santhal system of governance, known as Manjhi–Paragana, may be compared to what is often called Local Self Governance. This body is responsible for making decisions to ameliorate the village's socioeconomic condition.
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