Watch a video documentary on Santali marriage customs >>
The original inhabitants of South Asia are known as Adivasi. Their lifestyle is generally marked by a profound respect for nature. It is this sense of harmony that sustained the life of countless tribal communities for thousands of years. Today’s changes include carbon dioxide pollution caused by coal mines, deforestation and the impact of climate change. These factors threaten the social fabric of many Adivasi communities including the Santal. They constitute one of the largest communities whose settlements are spread across North-East India, Bangla Desh, Nepal and Bhutan. Their mother tongue is known as Santali.
Background information by documentary filmmaker Sigrun Schnarrenberger >>
“The forest was never far away from habitation. For instance, excavations of the settlements at Atranjikhera and Hastinapur, which are not too far from Delhi, have yielded evidence of a large variety of forest trees. The Buddhist Canon states that aside from the village and its outskirts, the rest of the land is jungle. Even as late as the seventh century A.D., the Chinese Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang writes of forests close to Kausambi, as also of the extensively forested areas in the vicinity of Kapilavastu and Kusinagara in the terai and north Bihar. Travelling from one town to another meant going through a forest.” | Romila Thapar in Forest dwellers in early India – myths and ecology in historical perspective >>
See also
Audio | Santali Traditional and Fusion Songs: Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust – West Bengal
Banam (Santal string instrument)
– eBook: Banam Making Workshop at Bishnubati | Daricha Foundation
– Video: Banam Raja | Interview with Nunulal Marndi | Reviving the Huka Banam
eBook | Background guide for education
eBook | Free catalogue: Banam: One of the ancient musical instruments of the Santals
eBook | Free catalogue: Museum of Santal Culture (Bishnubati) – West Bengal
India’s tribal, folk and devotional music: Secular and ceremonial songs
Infusing the Santhali Element in Schooling by Rina Mukherji
Museum of Santal Culture Bishnubati
Music and dance | Adivasi music and the public stage by Jayasri Banerjee
Puppetry | Santali Chadar Badni / Chadar Bad(o)ni”| Daricha Foundation
– eBook: Cadence-and-counterpoint-documenting-santal-musical-traditions
– Video: Damon Murmu | Sahadev Kisku | Shibdhan Murmu
Santal | Santal creation myth | Santal Parganas | The Santals by Boro Baski
Santal cultural traditions documented on the Daricha Foundation website
Santal flute music: Audio resource by Adivaani.org – West Bengal & Jharkhand
Santali language | eBook | A Santali-English dictionary – Archive.org
Santal mission | Santali songs recorded in 1931 at Kairabani (Jharkhand)
Santal music | Santal Musical Traditions: National Museum (exhibition catalogue)