Largest tribal community in India, found mainly in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. Satars or Santhals are one of the most backward ethnic groups of the neighboring country Nepal. They live in the districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari. There is also a significant Santal minority in neighboring Bangladesh. Santhals also call themselves Hor. They prefer to live in the peripheries of forests and rivers. They have their own unique religion and culture. They are animist. Hunting and fishing are their favourite occupations. Their ancestral deity is Thakurjiu and their paternal guardian deity is Maranburu. Bow and arrows are their traditional weapons. Their favorite meat is pork. Most Santals are engaged in farming and labor. They belong to the Austro-Asiatic group of human families. They have also been called as a subgroup speaking a language belonging to the Munda family (Dahal, BS2051/052). Their language is called Santhali. They have their own script, which was developed by Dr Raghunath Murmu in 1925. It is called Olchiki.
Racially the Santhals belong to the protoastraloid racial group, linguistically they belong to the Mundari group of Austro-Asiatic linguistic family and economically they may be classified as plain agricultural type. The Santhals are very conscious about their identity and heritage. And this is the reason why they have, most probably consciously, built up a sense of solidarity amongst themselves. Their internal solidarity is often based on their principle of likeness, that is a shared cultural characteristic, which binds them together. The Santhals live in peace and harmony among themselves.
Population:
The Jhapa district in Nepal has the highest population of Santhals and Morang district has slightly less. Their population, according to the census of 2001, is 42,689. The Southern part of the Bihar is called as `Santhal Praganas` because of the density of the Santhal tibe in this area. They had multiplied from proto – Australoid origin. It is also believed that they had come from the Districts of `Santha` and that is why they are called as `Santan` or men of Santha state. The Munda-Santal of northeastern India and Nepal comprise of nine different, but very closely related people groups. They are distributed politically throughout the states of Bihar, West Bengal, and Orissa, India. Most of the tribes live in the hilly areas of the Chotanagpur Plateau, located in southern Bihar. Others prefer living in the plains. Beyond this region, they have spread widely throughout India as agricultural and industrial laborers.
The seven groups who occupy territory farther north include the Santhal (of India and Nepal), the Bhumij, the Koda, the Mahili, the Ho, and the Agariya. The two remaining groups, the Juango and the Gadaba, are located in the southern portion of India, nearer to the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Language:
The Santhali language is part of the Austro-Asiatic family, distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer. The history of the Santals may be traced to Africa from where started the human migration. It was found that humans from Africa started to migrate towards the Eastern part of the world or Asia. 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.
Santhals did not have a written language until the twentieth century. Therefore the script is a recent development. A distinct script was required to accommodate the Santhali language, combining features of both the Indic and Roman scripts. The modern Ol Chiki script was devised by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925. He wrote over 150 books covering a wide spectrum of subjects. 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.
Judicial system:
The Santhals traditionally had an organized judicial system for the management and solution of the various problems within the community. They make every effort to solve the social problems arising within their community by themselves. The head of the Santhal community is called Manjhi Hadam. He is the chief of the executive, judicial and all other functions within society. He is assisted by other office bearers like Paranik, Jagmanjhi, Jagparanik, Naike, Gudit, etc, who work in their respective fields to solve various kinds of problems. After the birth of a child, the Jagmanjhi and following the death of a person the Gudit and others are present. Manjhi Hadam undertakes the looking into judicial cases and the dispensing of justice and above him is Disham Manjhi, and above both is Diheri. The Diheri is the highest judicial office bearer of Santhals. The Santhals who generally like to live in concentrated settlements of their own near rivers and forests are divided into 12 thars or groups. As the groups are in accordance with professional specialization, this appears as a form of social system. The Murmu are the priests of Santhals and Murdi the businessmen, while Kisku are the rulers and Hemram judges. Similarly, the Tudu are musicians and Soren soldiers. The organizations of Santhals are village council (Manjhibaisi), Proganna Council (Pramatrabaisi) and the highest council (Labirbaisi).
More about the Santhalies:
The Santhal Rebellion
Art and culture of Santhal Tribe
Beliefs and tales of Santhals
Customs of the Santhal Tribe
Source:http://www.indianetzone.com
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please find my blog about santal scroll paintings on : http://santalparganas.blogspot.com/
Dear Mr Rashid,
It is well that you wrote all information about santhals but when they came to india and from where they came you didn’t say.
I hope you will write something about this topic. I am from santhal pargana so I have some knowledge about this ,
after 1750 BRITISH bring them from Austria as lobour for the development of rail line in Bengal,Bihar.
Santhal never fight against the british for the freedom of INDIA , the purpuse of their fight was to get the perfect money or corn and they were also soughting for their own state and autonomy(but from last 154 years they didn’t get it). People is still in dark and they think that Santhal fought for the country.
think you got it
with love
arindam mukherjee
dumka
jharkhand
Hi..Arindam it is very unfortunate that though you are from Dumka your knowledge about Santhals is so less… Plz get som reference from Anthropology, Santhals are not from Austria..they are the indigenous people of india. Of course one may argue their genetic connections with africans …but that proves their migration to be prior or along the continental drift of Asia.
The second part of your info is also not completely correct as though the Santhals initial struggle was against the inhuman Zamindaars and British arse lickers Sahukars like your community they fought with the British too at later and long.
u shd nt speak so if u lack full information abot santhALS. u know it really hurts.
for ur kind info:
santhals fought against greedy zamindars nd that also bcoz they were intensely cheated during sharing OF GRAINS. When they were doing so the british thought it a mutiny nd a fight ensued between them. BUT later they became friends. In this course ,lands were seized from the greedy zamindars and given to santhals.
hope u got it, BETTER
PREM P. TUDU
DUMKA
nd of course JHARKHAND.
Hi Arindam, Ignorance is a bliss. I feel so sorry for you that so know so little about santhals and claim otherwise. You know nothing mate! Get yourself educated first and then speak. Clearly you lack knowledge and education. Focus on acquiring it first before writing a comment like this
I meant you know so little……
I Arindam Mukherjee regret for the wrong information which I have given in the above comment, It happened due to the ignorance, So try to avoid it.
i wanted to know the family type which found in santal group. if you write something more about their family type, marriage system & their culture it will be helpful.
the detail is very vast.
Rashid, I am from Santhal community. I am a B.Tech student . Are your information about santhal are correct?
Hi,
This is Barisha from Baripada.i my self a santhala. and i inform you that santhalis are very innocent and they are very care full about their rituals, and their works .and also they are very caring…….and their hopitality for a traveller to their house is very heart touchable.and offcourse theire educational bakground is not so strong as others…but now people are unerstand that education is very necessary for them and they also send their children to schools and also provide higher studies……it looks 45%.
Sometime santhalis are atyacharita by others of ther innocence means the sence of most oof santhalis are labours or farmers….and some of
I think the HANDIA (it is a one kind of rice soft drink) is plays vital role for there poorness.becase it affect very bad….becase they think we are born here to enjoy our live to eat drink …
Hi Barisha.I ENCOURAGE THE PEOPLE WHO BELONG TO sANTHALA COMMUNITY PLEASE GO AHEAD FOR YOUR RELIGION AND CREATE A OWN IDENTITY IN THIS SOCIETY LIKE OTHER RELIGIONS……… ALL SANTHALIS ARE HEARTLY COME FOR THEIR OWN LANGUAGE ,OWN SOCIETY, OWN CULTURE .AND ALSO UHAR PE abanij Pandit-Raghunath Murmu. Jharge jaharge Gosain…………….
i think their life stisfies certain customs and practices.it’s quite interesting to know about these tribes!!!!!
Hello Rashid !
I came to know from Comments on “Santhal:Largest Tribal Community in India” of Sri Arindam Mukherjee of Dumka, Jharkhand that Santhal people had been brought from Astria as labour. It is highly objectionable. He has no rights to insult santhal community. He has know nothing about history of Santhal. However, he lived in most santhal population area. I may also say about their community that their charectaristics is seems as CHAPLUSI which was learnt from British.
At last, I am giving you thaks for publishing our culture.
Thanking you with warm regards!
M.C.Hansdah,
Rairangpur, Odisha
Hi Hansdah, hope your first name starts with Mike or Michel if it is true then please read that comment which I have given to Thomas. You are the representative of British, they left the country and you became Christian to play the role of British religious representative. You people are cheating with the whole society and other innocent Santhal by availing their facilities which are generally given to them. It’s a request to you all please don’t show fake sympathy to them because they are innocent so they couldn’t understand your cleverness. Let them leave and grow up like us and stop CHAPLUSI. Ha ha ha this CHAPLUSI word is really matches with you . Feel free to contact.
Hello Rashid,
I am an 8th grade student from DPS hyderabad. I was in search for info on Santhal Tribe as I had a project. This Blog has helped me quite a lot, to an extent.
I will recommend this blog to rest of my mates.
Thank you
Regards/-
Priyanka
Thanks Priyanka and Welcome to my blog.
If you want anything specific posted ,please write me.
Hello!
I am from Bangladesh. I would like to know literacy rate of Santhal in India and total santhal population if possible.
Hi ,i m sujay hansdak, b.tech civil engineer. Mr . Arindam,u hav no right to say like that, dont try to spread wrong info.. We respect ur culture nd u shuld respect ours..
can i get geographical location of santhal tribe
hi i am tanyai am in 8th class i got a lot of information but i want to geographical location of santhal tribe
Thanks dude 4dis info. It helped me to know abot my origin nd culture. i request peoples not to coment smthng bad abot santhals. It ll simply show ur ignorance.
Santhali Channel kholne meri help karo.. AISFA ki help chahia mujhe jisase me channel khol sakta .. SANTHALI CHANNEL kholna jaruri ho gaya he ..
Jo v hai….. find out the real history….. why r u ppl arguing among urself………….
Mr Arindham, You should not speak with your so called “SOME KNOWLEDGE”. You should think thrice before speaking such a way.
Hi Thomas, I really don’t know why you are commenting in this manner, you are a Christian not a SANTHAL. Sometime you people are saying that you don’t know how to cheat and on the other hand you are availing all benefits by changing your “JATI” from Santha to Christian, don’t you think that you all are cheating with Santhal’s holy GOD and the society. You are cheating not only with the holy GOD but also with the innocent Santhal. They are really innocent and there are no doubts in it, but are u ? So please stop cheating to them and don’t show your sympathy to the innocent Santhals only to get personal benefits. I really regret to all Santhals because my comment hurt you. Now Thomas you think thrice that are you not cheating to the Santhals and snatching their facilities. And Oh yes please don’t say that I am Santhal and Christian both only to get benefits. At least be honest with one GOD, I have equal respect to the Christian and other casts but I really hate them who play with the religion . Hope you got the reply. If you want something extra feel free to contact me.
sachcha admi called santhal’ do you know arindham santhal does not know how to cheat .do not comment like this.it is not good .suppose i shall comment like this on your community how do you feel i want your reply.
Throughout the internet we find the same stuff on santhals. Nothing new. I feel we need some reformation in santhal culture and tradition, especially in the case of rice beer. Can’t we have a tradition without rice beer and wine ? Can’t we appease our ancestors and the deities without rice beer ? This idea may hurt some people, but sorry to speak this rice beer and wine doesn’t promote a welfare culture.
Thanks for your input.
if you want you can send me some material.
I will incorporate into this post.
Dear Rashid, our santhal tradition is oral in nature.It could be reformed and redeemed.
If they don’t know how to cheat then what about that santhal politicians who are simply cheating your own community and the state. Go to the village go to the town and see it. Parents are government service holder and children’s are taking huge stypen money . They are becoming Christian and taking benefits from both side. I have given few points to u. Hope rest you can find out. And if still you think these are not cheating then may we have learnt different definition of cheating. I have never thought to hurt your community because no one community in this world is hundred percent perfect.
Mukharjee mohasoy apnar santar der sombondhe gyan boddo kom.
Apnar kothao dekhlam na, apni j tottho santar der sombondhe diyechen
ta vul bole sikar korechen. Apni otibo JHANU MAL. ekta AZE BAZE tottho
diye nam kenar chesta korchen.
sengeltiti, amar mone hoi j apni thik bolchen aamr very first comment a kichu bhul ache. Specially oi j oder k Austria thake nia asar bapar ta . Gyaner obhav chilo kintu jak onnoder lekha pore onek kichu jante parlam. 3 years aager lekha to toknon wiki te o serokom kichu pai ne, tai aase paser gramer manusder kache thake ja janechilam tai likhechilam, jak ekta kotha apnake mante e hobe j amar oi comment er 3 years por “krantir aagun” jollo r sobai lekha suru korlo. Jak bhul likhe o j ami kichu manuser dristi akarsan korte parachi etai aamar jonno onek. Jak manuser chok khule diachi r ki ebar aapnara lekha likhi kore samle nin. R latest comment gulo te mone hoi na kono bhul aache, ja dekchi tai liklam. Ek dike bole amra khub sadha sidhe r onno dike sampurno rajjo ta k lute pute khacche. Santhal hobar dhong kore lav nicche abar Christian hobar o. Bochorer por bochor tara sudhu reservation nia e choleche r koto din ? Apnar mone hoi na jatir name ei reservation er sothik use hocche na. Obilombe e bondho kora utich r reservation hole tader hok jara gorib eta dakha thik na j se kon jatir. Apni thik bhabe porun r bolun to amar kon kotha ta bhul. R namer kotha bolchen, 5 ta comment likhe jodi naam hoa jai tahole bharote to sobar e naam hoagache. Bhalo thakben, bhalo laglo apni bangla te liklen.
Mukherjee Gomke johar,
apnar lekha pore valo laglo, apni ditio bisow ta niye je alokpat korechen sebisoye ami ekebare ekmot, those who r santhal they r not hindu, not muslim, not christian etc they bieleve one and only suprem power MRARANG BURU. who creat this human race and this world with the power of thakur(hori) or(ong) means enegy( in santhali Dare, not tree). Santhal mythology which is narreted in Holy JOMSIM BINTI(mesns whith out hand) is nothing but science of evolution and migration of human race. Which support the
mordern anthropology. As per santhal, Santhal people started their journey from HIHIRI PIPIR, as per my knowledge it could be some where in africa. And then through middle east asia to valley of indus (sopto nodir desh or in santhali oyay(7 ) na.y dishom. where they set up there gars or sahar. Due to some reason they left that place and enter to SING DISOM, means this india. And now this chotanagpur area. The whole story of JOMSIM BINTI is very vast thus it can not be ellaborrate where.
Till the pre british period they lieved very peacefully. But when the british came to these place santhal people came in danger. Again through missioneries they started to convert sari or sarna(santhal people) to cgristanity by teaching them some a-b-c-d and devide our faith and dignity. Which is very painful to me. Thus the people those converted to christain they not remain santhals becouse they loose their faith in marang buru. They loose their customs, ritual and religius practice. So as per my opinion they loose their identity and became DIKU. So they are no SANTHALS, they are CHRISTIAN OR DIKU OR just DIKU CHRISTIAN. They are not represting our santhal samaj. They are just people whou can spesk in santhali. Just like me, as i can speak in bengoli but i m not bengali. Or i know very little english but i am not a engraz.
Binod Gomke Joharge,
a.binag uyha.r bhabna parhao kate a.ling a.di bhabna reling parao ena|
nitog katha huyug kana a.bin ha.ndi do oka bhabtebin bebhareda onachetan|
a.gil hapram ko reyag kathatedo ha.ndido a.di pobitro jinis kana| jahnado
ekhen bonga oktogebo choled tanhed kana| menkhan nagam khon ngamog kana
ingrez ko nowa dishom ko hej en taom, santarko mudre nowa ha.ndi reyag chol do a.dited ko ba.rtikeda|nitog bin bujha.u dareyag kan geya ched kha.tir¿¿¿ la.y reyag la.kti do ba.nug ana| menkhan nowa hon thik gebin la.y akag-a, ha.ndi abo santar adigey nasaw akad bonay| tobekhan abodo bonga kami redo MARANG BURU ngitum mid chuka.g ha.ndi dobo dohoyma bare, menkhan bha.ti ka.mi la.gid TUKUJ TUKUJ do banga|
johar salag
Marang Buru Hirla.
sengeltiti Johar, tomar lekha pore khub bhalo laglo. Sotti tumi onek information diacho j gulo amar jana chilo na, thanks for that. Ami kono din o kintu Santhalder ke kharap chokhe dekhi ne amon ki amar bhaier bhikke maa baba kintu Santhal, amar maa nijer taka te ekta santhal maye k choto thake IA porjonto poriache r ekhon o se BA te porche. Kintu amon kichu points ache j gulo ami mane nite pari na r tar moddhe ache oi prothom point ta j jodi ora Christian hoa jacche nijer “MRARANG BURU” k bhule jacche tahole kano santhalra er protest korena joknon ei convertedra e government er daoa facility gulo avail korche( Ai facility gulo kintu santhalder k daoa hoi). R another point apni jodi amar jaiga te thakten tahole apni o same kotha bolten j jatir name e reservation kano daoa hobe ? gorib lokder k dile karo kintu kharap lagbe na. Ami aaj bari thake 2000 KM dure thaki kano janen ? sudhu ei reservation er jonno, Ami amar area thake kono din MLA, MP hote parbo na kano janen sudhu ei jonno j ekhan thake sudhu santhalra e election e darate parbe. Tahole ki ami ekta democratic county te bas korchi bola jai, ami ki kore boli j amar desh secular country. Sob kichu e jatir name e hocche. Apnar mone hoi na independence er 66 years pore r jatir name e reservation thakaar kono mane hoi na. Onneder sathe onek onnai hocche. Bhalo thakbe, apni bhalo lekhen likte thakben.
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Reblogged this on Jugraphia Slate.
well done!!!!
keep it up
hey this is mind blowing
This helps a lot of kids
lovely presentation.
I suggest you to add the following info.
This will make it much better.
CULTURE-
Santhal Tribes enjoy and love dancing. Dancing is one activity which is in their blood. It forms an important part of the Santhals fairs and festivals.
Santhal Tribal Community have no temples of their own and they even do not worship any idols. Santhal follow the Sarna religion. Their God and Goddess are Marangburu, Jaheraera, and Manjhi.
DRESSING-
Santhal women dress up themselves in the red bordered white sari and dance in the line sequence.
OCCUPATION-
The occupation of the Santhal revolve around the forests in which they reside. Their basic needs are fulfilled from the trees and plants of the forests. They are also engaged in the hunting, fishing and cultivation for their livelihood.
LOOKS-
Santhal have long head and flat nose. Their complexion varies from dark brown to black in colour. Santhal usually have curly hair.
LANGUAGE-
Santhal speak Santali, which belongs to the Austro- Asiatic language family. Apart from Santali they also speak Bengali, Oriya and Hindi. The members of the Santhal tribe have accepted the dialect Santali as their mother-tongue. A strange feature of this alphabet is that it does not possess any similitude with the Indic or the Devanagiri scripts. Another speciality of the Santali language is that they possess three extra vowels along with six regular ones.
RELIGION-
The religion of Santhal involves Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity.
FESTIVALS-
Santhal mainly celebrate the Karam festival which falls in the month of September and October. They celebrate this festival to please the God to increase their wealth and free them from all the enemies.
and more will be replied later.
Hope you do it again in a better way using my info.
This is also good but well done
keep it up
will be waiting for your other blogs
THANKYOU
Hi Rashid, have you any information about santhals migration route? Please upload it.
Santhals belong to the Pre Aryan period. They were the great fighters during the British regime in India. They wagged war against the permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis in 1855. During the late 1850 Santhals hero Sidhu had accumulated around 10 thousand Santhals to run parallel government against the British government. Baba Tilka Majhi was the first Santhal leather who raise weapons against the Britishers in 1789.