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The Santal Creation Story: Kolean Guru’s Ancient Narrative of Thakur-Jiu and the First Humans
In the Beginning: A World of Water The oldest Santal traditions begin with a scene of utter solitude. There was no land, no forest, and no living creature. There was only a vast, dark expanse of water. In this primal ocean, the Supreme God, Thakur—the source of life—first created the...
Santal Folklore: The Story of Dayans and Ojhas.
Listen to Audio Transcription: Once upon a time, Marang Buru decided that he would teach men the art of witchcraft. In those days there was a place where men used to assemble to meet Marang Buru and hold a council with him: but they only heard his voice and never...
Is modernity a threat to Santhal culture?
Johar, Social media is so cluttered nowadays! Facebook post reach has gone down drastically and most of the posts that we publish don’t even show up in your newsfeeds. So, if you could take just a few seconds to subscribe to our newsletter or join our telegram channel then we...
Santal Tribal Tattoos- The Wealth of afterlife.
Tattooing is an art of inking a person’s skin as all of us know, and people have been practising this art since ancient times. Not just Santals, but many aboriginal tribes from around the world have their unique form of tattooing. Nobody has a clear idea of how this custom...
Infographic: Origin of Ol-Chiki letters
Did you Know? Pandit Raghunath Murmu invented the Ol-Chiki script in 1925 when he was just 20 years old. The reason, Ol-Chiki looks different from the Indic Scripts( Bengali/Devanagari/Oriya) or the Roman script is that it is not derived from any of those. In fact, to create the script, Pandit...
Santal Mythology: The story of the Santal Clans
Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi were leading a comfortable life in Hihiri-Pipiri. They had an abundance of everything and were content with a simple yet happy life. One fine morning Lita came to their small hut in Hihiri-Pipiri looking for them, Lita said, “How are you, my grandchildren? I have...
Chatiar: The Ceremonial Cleansing of a child
Long-established customs, rituals, and ceremonies play a pivotal role in the lives of Santal People. These events not only keep us attached to our roots but also keep the bonding within our community strong. We organize most of these rituals to gain the blessings of benevolent spirits and to keep...
Santal Mythology: How was the earth created?
In the beginning, there was only water. Deep down the ocean was the earth. As, there was no land, the supreme Lord “Thakur- Jiu” created aquatic animals first – namely the crab, the crocodile, the alligator, the boarfish, the prawn, the earthworm, the tortoise, and others. After that, the Lord...
Santhal Rebellion: The Santhal Hul
The aftermath of Augustus Cleveland’s assassination After the assassination of Augustus Cleveland, Baba Tilka was hanged to death and his followers were either shot dead or imprisoned. Read: Santal revolution: Revolution of Baba Tilka After this, the responsibility of Damin-E-Koh was handed over to Abdul Rasul Khan. Company officials were...
Birth of the first human couple
From time immemorial, Santal People had their stories and myths handed down in oral form through Guru-Shishya Paramparā. These stories are known as Binti. The Gurus used to dictate the stories in various cultural events, their disciples and ordinary folks used to listen and learn them. When the British invaded India, various missionaries who came...
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