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Santhal Tribe


Santhal Tribe
Quite a multitude of tribal communities throng various provinces and districts of the state of Bihar. Amongst these several tribes, the name of these Santal tribes is worth mentioning.

As per the anthropologists` observations, these Santal tribes mostly reside in every possible corner of the districts of Hazaribagh,Singhbhum, Santhal Pragana, Giridih, Dhanbad,Ranchi and Bhagalpur, Purnea, Sharsha and Munger in Bihar. Few of these Santal tribes too are found in the Harichandanpur block region. Another unique quality of these Santal tribes is their amiable nature to live in peace and harmony with all the other tribes of Bihar state.

As far as the languages of these Santal tribes are duly concerned, they converse with other in their own dialect, commonly known as Santali. This Santali language is believed to be one of the ancient languages of Indian subcontinent. It falls in to the Munda group of the Austro- Asiatic sub-family, which again embellishes the broad language family namely, Austric family of languages.

However, as a recent phenomenon, it has been observed that several people of these Santal tribal community converse with each other in Oriya language. At present most of them speak and understand Hindi Bengali and Oriya languages.

What is also significant about these Santal tribes of Bihar region is how these Tribal communities are being segregated. It is quite well known that the whole of the Santal society has division of 12 patrilineal exogamous clans. Again the respective members of the group are again utilizing the names of these clans, from time to time, as surnames. Santal tribal culture is also nicely being reflected in the way they build their houses, in their food habits etc. These Santal tribes reside in airy houses with verandah both at the front and back sides. The houses are almost dirt free and the walls are usually adorned with a variety of artistic paintings in diverse colors.

The food of these Santal tribes is too exotic. These Santal tribes have the habit of drinking alcohols. Especially at the time of festivals and also during several joyous socio- religious ceremonies beer, excreted from rice, is their conventional drink. These Santal tribes make this drink at their individual houses. Quite often these Santal tribes also brought alcohol, known as Mahua, from few of the local venders.


Fair and festivals also are part and parcel of the culture of this Santal tribal community. They fete festivals like Karama festival and Makar Sankranti on an elaborate manner. Dancing, singing and drinking commemorate several other socio-religious ceremonies like birth, marriage and also death. . Just like most of the Santal tribes of Indian Territory, these Santal tribes work as cultivators. Some of them even take up the occupation of agricultural labors in the fields. With the end of every harvesting season also, some of these Santal tribes immigrate to certain other places and take up the job of daily wagers though on a temporary basis. However, till date, these Santal tribes are less proficient in the field of education and learning.

For better controlling and administration, these Santal tribes have developed the concept of village Panchayat system. All the head of the family constitutes the members of Santal tribes. The village leader is known as "Manjhi" who used to held rent-free land for his service.
Source:http://www.indianetzone.com/8/santal_tribe.htm
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1 comments:

  1. Manotan Peter Boeha
    Daya katek̓ noa sayiṭ te hijuk̓ me.
    http://santali.webs.com/
    Rạnjit Hãsdak̓

    ranjeetkumarhansdah@gmail.com

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