Kadey Soren: Most of my fellow Santhal intellectual are involve...

Kadey Soren: Most of my fellow Santhal intellectual are involve...: Most of my fellow Santhal intellectual are involved in fiery debate over real religion of Santhal population, religious book of Santhal, ...

35th National Games: Odisha win Women’s Rugby Gold

Odisha Women created history, as they defeated Maharashtra 17-5 in the final to win the Gold Medal in Women’s Rugby event at the 35th National Games in Kerala. They had defeated West Bengal in the final. In the group stage, they had beaten Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly, they won all their matches comprehensively, leaving their rivals no chance to bounce back.

Prior to the departure, Odisha skipper Laxmipriya Sahoo had promised either a Silver or Gold. And, she did not let the people of her state down. Despite lack of proper government support, they have proved their mettle. Most of the members of the team are tribal girls from KISS.

Members of the current Odisha Women’s Rugby team, Laxmipriya Sahoo, Meenarani Hembram, Sanjukta Munda, Bhagyalaxmi Barik and Hupi Majhi, have been chosen for the national team for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil. Other team members Bhanumati Bage, Sujata Pradhan, Sasmita Moharana and Sabita Munda will take part in the Federation’s Rugby-7s France Tour this year.

Baha festival

Baha festival is one of the main festivals of Santhals. It is observed in the month of Fagun which falls between February and March. This is the time of spring season. Neither the cold nor the heat is felt. The nature takes her new posture with new leaves and flowers in the tree which gives immense pleasure to her creatures. Under this leisureliness environment Santhal people observed their Baha festivals.

The philosophy behind the observation of Baha festival during spring season is that the trees bear new leaves, flowers and fruits. Wild animals and birds moved around in search of new leaves, flowers and fruits. So this is the appropriate time for the man to collect these flowers and fruits and hunt the animals in deep forest. There is every apprehension that while doing such collection of forest products, they may come across various dangers or they may wrongly collect poisonous fruits for their consumption. There is another apprehension for mankind that at the end of the spring season, epidemics like chicken pox, small pox may break out in the countryside.

During this time domesticated cow, oxen, buffalo and birds, wonder into deep forest in search fodder. There will be every possibility for them to be in danger. To ward off all these apprehensions, danger and the evil effects of nature, Santhal people observe Baha festival. During Baha Bonga Santhals pray and beg blessing from their god and goddess to prevent them from all possible danger, evils and poisonous effect of nature. This festival falls during the time when flowers blossom in the trees especially in Sal and Mahua trees therefore the festival is known as Baha Festival which literary means Festival of Flowers.

This is a village level festival. In each and every Santhal village it is observed for three days. Day of observance is fixed by the Manjhi (head of the village) with consultation of village official and villagers at least from a week ago so that villagers may get enough time to prepare themselves for the festival like cleaning, plastering and painting of their houses. Time is also needed for purchase of new cloths and material, brewing of rice beer and inviting relatives.

On the first day of the festivals, the villagers with the help of young folks (Unmarried) clean the Jaherthaan premises and repair the shed of Jaher thaan.  Naike cleans and smears it with oil and article on the Jaherthaan (place of worship). Preparation of three winnowing fans, flat basket (dowla), bows and arrows, battle axe (Kapi), broom (Jonog), Bangle (Sakam), Necklace (Mala) and Buffalo horns is done in collaboration with the villagers in consultation with Naike.  Naike then purifies himself by taking a bath along with Kudam Naike to perform the rituals. In the evening villagers assembled at the Naike’s house to keep all the articles in the court yard for public verification. Three young man of the village are seated in front of the Naike and then Naike hands over to them the three winnowing fans with some raw rice and invokes Jahen Ayo, Lita Gosain and Moreko- Turuyko to come over to them. Three young boys enter into trance and impersonate Jaher Ayo, Lita Gosain and Moreko- Turuy. The young man, who acts as a Jaher Ayo, wears the necklaces, bangles and takes the flat basket on his head and broom in his hand. The Lita Gosian (Marang Buru) takes the battle axe and Moreko Turuyko takes the bows and arrows. Three of them inspect Jaherthaan and verify whether Jaherthaan is cleaned properly or not, whether the shed is made appropriately and if any other requirement is in place or not. After returning Naike washes their feet, puts sindur on their forehead and bid them to return to Jaherthaan. The three young boys regain their consciousness from trance and are given rice beer. Then all the villagers present consume rice beer and perform dances and sing throughout the night in the Naike’s court-yard.

The next day morning three young boys go to the forest and collect Sal flowers. Godet collects rice, salt, turmeric and other materials for the village feast from every household of village. Naike takes bath along with Kudam Naike and arranges all the puja materials namely sindur, maithi oil, raw rice, rice powder and milk etc in the winnowing fan. Then the village officials and few villagers (male and female) assemble at the Naike’s house and company him in procession towards Jaherthaan in midst of songs and dances.

In Jaher the Naike first cleans and pastures the front space of each God with cow dung and sprinkles water and milk on them followed by anointing with the oil and maithi. This is known as holi bath of God and Goddess. Naike, than makes a khond (balls) with rice powder in front of each god and put some raw rice in it. After that he allows fowls to take raw rice from the khond and scarifies them with song innovation.

Kudam naike performs his bulmayam ceremony to sima sale bonga placed separate in jaherthaan. After that puja is over, Naike cooks the heads of the fowls with raw rice in a new pot and takes it with Kudam Naike. The other parts of the fowls are cooked with the rice collected from villagers by the Godet and then are served to villagers (male only).

In the afternoon the villagers assemble at Jaherthaan and beg for sal flowers from the Naike and adorn it followed by Baha dance and songs. Baha parab is the only occasion in which both male and females dance in front of God and Goddess at Jaherthaan. Other times females are not allowed to enter into the jaher premises. For same reason Baha festival is regarded as the great festival where male and female avail same opportunities to dance freely in front of Bongas with laden hearts of devotion. It is believed that some time bongas became so pleased with the dances and songs that they came out of their shrines in disguises and danced with males and females as human beings.

So the Baha festival is not only the festival of human beings but also the festival of Bongas.

In the evening the Naike purifies people present at Jaherthaan with holy water by sprinkling it on them. Three men enter into the entrance and impersonate jaher aayo, lita gossain and maneka turuiko. The Naike offers their respective adornment i.e flat basket, necklace, bangle and broom to jaher aayo, betel axe to lita gossain and bows and arrows to maneka turuiko. Then procession starts. The Naike takes the lead then jaher ayo, then lita gossain , then maneko turuiko and then the villagers follow them, with dancing and singing. Every household female folks washes feet of the Naike as well as the Bongas during the procession and seek flowers and beg blessings. The procession continues till it reaches the Naike’s house. Then again Baha dance starts in the court yard of the Naike and it continues through the whole night. Baha dance is very sacred dance in which sometimes Bongas also take part. So it is called as Bonga dance and this is why male and female dance quite separately. The third day of the festival is the most amusing day of Santhals. In this dance male and female both take part and dance hand to hand.  So everybody from young to old doesn’t lag behind to enjoy the dance. Moreover the third day of the festival is the last day of dahar dance of the calendar year. So no one wants to miss the chance. In the evening the dance comes to an end as does the festival.